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JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE, 

UJririml ^miomxji to djpa. 



Mdry B Isabella 
MRS. BRYSON, 

London Mission, Tien-tsin; 

AUTHOR OF "CHILD LIFE IN CHINESE HOMES," ETC. 



WITH PORTRAIT. 



SECOND EDITION. 



NEW YORK and CHICAGO. 

fflemina !>♦ IRevell Company 

Publishers of Evangelical Literature. 



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171, 173 Macdougal Street, New York 



PREFACE. 

|"T was on the early morning of Easter Day 1888 
■*• that, after thirteen years of active service in China, 
Dr. Mackenzie was suddenly called to rest from his 
labours. 

During this time he had been used by God in a 
wonderful way to overcome the great prejudice ex- 
isting in China against Western medical science, and 
was the means of founding and conducting the first 
Government medical school in the Empire. 

His labours, indeed, had no small share in giving 
that impetus towards foreign methods in medicine 
and surgery which has of late been so noticeable. 
But while thus singularly successful as a physician, 
it was in the consecration of all his powers to the 
attainment of a yet higher end than even the healing 
of bodily disease that Dr. Mackenzie was specially 
remarkable. 

Few men have kept more constantly before them 
the spiritual good of those with whom they came in 
contact. It was ever the evangelistic side of medical 
work, and the opportunities thus given him to bring 



PREFACE. 



to men the healing message of the gospel of Christ, 
which called forth his enthusiasm, and sustained him 
amid difficulties and discouragements which otherwise 
would have been insuperable. When the announce- 
ment of Dr. Mackenzie's death was received there 
was a widespread feeling not only among his own 
personal friends, but among the friends of Missions 
generally, that the story of his life and labours would 
prove helpful to the cause of Medical Missions. 

Having had the privilege of the Doctor's friendship 
from the year 1875 till his death, and been a witness 
of the wonderful results of his unwearying labours, 
first in Central China and afterwards on the banks 
of the Pei-ho, I felt unable to refuse to tell the story 
of a life devoted, like that of our Divine Master, to 
the healing of the sick and the preaching of the 
gospel. 

With many other duties to occupy my time and 
attention, but on the spot where Dr. Mackenzie carried 
on his benevolent labours, and where his name will 
for many a year be remembered by Chinamen of 
every rank with gratitude and esteem, these memorials 
of him have been written. 

As far as possible my aim has been to allow " our 
beloved physician," by means of his own letters and 
diaries, to tell of the wonderful way by which the 
Lord led him. 

My special acknowledgments are due to the Doctor's 



PREFACE. 



brother, Alexander Mackenzie, Esq., of Bristol, and 
to the Directors of the London Missionary Society, 
for allowing the use of valuable collections of letters. 
Also to Lieut-Colonel Duncan and many other 
friends, both in England and China, for their kind- 
ness in contributing letters and reminiscences. 

I have throughout received valuable assistance from 
my husband, who was Dr. Mackenzie's colleague for 
many years, both in Hankow and Tien-tsin ; and also 
from Dr. F. C. Roberts, who succeeded the Doctor in 
the Tien-tsin medical work, and to whom I am in- 
debted for the chapter contained in the Appendix, 
giving an estimate of Dr. Mackenzie's labours from a 
professional point of view. 

My best thanks are also due to Dr. Maxwell, Secre- 
tary of the London Medical Missionary Association, 
and a valued friend of Dr. Mackenzie's, for his kind- 
ness in seeing the book through the press. It is my 
earnest prayer that this record of a consecrated life 
may prove a source of encouragement to some who 
have long toiled for the coming of Christ's kingdom, 
and that many others may be induced to devote their 
lives to the bodily and spiritual healing of the millions 
in heathen lands who have never heard of Christ, 
the Great Physician. 

Mary F. Bryson. 

London Mission, Tien-tsin. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

EARLY DAYS. 

Page 

The Fen Country — Yarmouth Rows and Chinese Streets — 

Bristol and School Life — Early Christian Influences — 

Mr. Moody's Visit — Confessing Christ — The Young 

Worker — A Primitive Training College — Theatre 

Services "with Publicans and Sinners" — First 

Thoughts of Foreign Mission Work — What is a 

Medical Mission ? — " The Double Cure " — Obstacles 

removed by Prayer ...••••! 

CHAPTER II. 

STUDENT LIFE AND VOYAGE TO CHINA. 

Medical Studies — Appeal from Hankow — Offers his 
Services to L.M.S. — Youthful Impatience — "I wish 
to have no Will of My Own " — Married versus Single 
Missionaries — Meeting Moody — Good-bye to England 
— The First Sunday at Sea — Occupations on Board 
Ship — A Grateful Retrospect — All for Christ — The 
Sights of Malta — Port Said — The Suez Canal — The 
Tropics — First Sight of Chinamen — Death of an 
Opium-smoker — The Banks of the Yang-tse-kiang — 
The New Home 21 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

LIFE IN HANKOW. 

Page 
The Heart of the Empire — Pioneering Work in Hankow — 
History of Medical Mission — Studying Chinese — 
Chinese Street Sights — "We have Doctors and 
Remedies of Our Own" — Prejudice Conquered — 
Yang-tse Floods — Among the Sailors — Union among 
the Missionaries — Fever — Visit to Kiukiang — The 
Temple of the Dragon King — Resuming Work — The 
Preaching in Glad Tidings Halls — Wuchang — The 
Temple of Hades— The Blind See — Aim in Hospital 
Work — Showers of Blessing yj 

CHAPTER IV. 

COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 

Work among the Villages — "All the Sick People in the 
Place " — A Kind Reception — Leprosy — Learning 
More of Christ — New Year's Day in China — Selling 
Books — The Cloth-dealer of Hiau-kan — Thirteen 
brought to Christ — A Night in a Chinese Boat — A 
Good Escort — Gathering Crowds — An Attack — " Go 
back to Hankow and Preach your Jesus there!" — 
Bravery of the Christians — " I was a Stranger and ye 
took Me in" — A Former Patient to the Rescue — A 
Chinese Feast — "You can never hurt my Soul" — 
A Bad Road 63 

CHAPTER V. 

LIGHT AFTER DARKNESS. 

A Dilemma — Appealing unto Caesar — A Chinese 
Mandarin — Hiau-kan Revisited — In a Chinese 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Yamen — A Religious Discussion — A Curious Crowd 
— "No Leisure so much as to Eat" — Stages Erected 
for the Preachers — Midnight Disturbers — A Dinner 
in Foreign Style — Village Converts — The Good Seed 
Sown Broadcast — Sowing in Tears to Reap in Joy — A 
Christian Village 85 

CHAPTER VI. 

PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 

The Fame of the Western Physician — Chinese Medical 
Theories — Charms against Disease — Chinese Faith in 
Surgery — A Hare-lip Case — Prepared for an Audi- 
ence with the Emperor — The Spirit's Revenge — 
How the Boatman Regained his Child — A Restless 
Patient — Opium Smokers — Seven Hundred in a Year 
— Telling their Neighbours — The Opium Smoker 
Cured — Sacrifices for Christ's Sake — The Restored 
Barber — Jesus the Only Saviour — "Where are the 
Nine ? " — The Value of Medical Work — Choosing a 
Chinese Name — Phases of Foreign Community Life — 
A Christian Worker — A Chinese Fire — More Noise 
than Work — Sailors' Meetings — Difficulty of the 
Chinese Language —A Country Trip — The Mission- 
aries Stoned — The Margary Affair Settled — Country 
Sights and Industries — First Sermon in Chinese — 
Hatred of Foreigners — Hospital Notes . . -99 

CHAPTER VII. 

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF MEDICAL 
MISSION WORK. 

Marriage — Work on the Tea- ships — Popularity of the 
Hospital — Rather Die than Lose a Limb — A Filial 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Son — Difficulty of Treating Chinese Women — " She 
Prefers to Die ! " — Persecution of Native Christians — 
The Paralytic Beggar— Chinese Generosity — Explo- 
sion of Gunpowder Magazine — Hydrophobia — Happy 
Deaths of Native Christians — The Tea Planter's Son 
— Discussion on Christianity — Attempted Suicide — 
From the Gates of Death — Making Two Mouths — 
Bishop Patteson's Life — Chinese Country Life — A 
Han-lin's Grave — Reception on Village Green — A 
Leader of Dragon Festivals — An Object of Interest — 
Idols Given Up — Swindling the Foreigner — How 
Some of the Chinese Gentry Live • • • .121 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CHANGES— A NORTHERN HOME. 

Changes — Offers for Chung-king — Curious Case — Summer 
Floods — Appointed to Tien-tsin — An Ice-bound Port 
— Good-bye to Hankow— Parting Gifts and Good 
Wishes — A Chinese Sinologue — A Mandarin's 
Family — The Harbour of Chefoo — Taku Bar — A 
Reminiscence of the Attack on the Forts — A Desert 
Land — First Impressions of Tien-tsin — Improved 
Chinese Singing — Cart Travelling in China — On the 
Way to the Capital — The Walls of Peking — The 
Imperial City — The Manchu City — The Temple of 
Heaven — The Lama Temple — Image of Buddha — A 
Praying Machine — " As Old as the Moabite Stone " 
— The Hill of Longevity — Ruins of the Summer 
Palace — Chinese Sunday-schools — The International 
Lesson Series 153 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE POWER OF PRAYER. 

Page 

An Unpromising Outlook — A Petition to the Viceroy — 
Suspense — A Time of Waiting on God — Importance 
of Studying the Language — The Chinese " Pilgrim's 
Progress " — A Wonderful Answer to Prayer — " Why 
not call in Foreign Doctors ? " — Prescribing under 
Difficulties — A Good Recovery — A Lady Doctor — 
Foreign Medicine becomes Popular — The City 
Moved — A Trial Operation — A Temple Dispensary — 
Physician to the Viceroy — " Unable to Compass the 
Work"— "Two Hundred Patients a Day ! "—A New 
Hospital Needed — A Chinese Subscription List — A 
Generous Patient — The Work Increases — Overworked 
— Difficulties in Chinese Surgical Cases — A Vaccine 
Establishment — Rumours of War — Colonel Gordon's 
Visit — Conversations with Gordon — The Viceroy's 
Opinion of Christianity — The Chinese in California — 
Dr. Schofield — The New Hospital Opened • • • 171 



CHAPTER X. 

EVANGELISTIC LABOURS. 

Qualifications for Medical Mission Work — A Yamen 
Runner brought to Christ — Enduring Persecution — 
Dispensary Scenes— In the Wards— Gift of Customs 
Taotai — The Reserve Fund — Failure of Mrs. 
Mackenzie's Health— Her Return to England- 
Chinese Appreciation of Surgery — Breaking down 
Prejudice— A Chinese Lady Patient — A Travelling 
Evangelist— Learning to Pray— An Applicant for 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Baptism — Confucius — China of To-day — Viceroy's 
Desire for Progress — No Middle Path in China . 207 



CHAPTER XL 

CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 

Establishment of Medical School — Chinese Students from 
America — Examinations — A Chinese Debating Society 
— " Seven Years in China" — Visit of Corean Prince — 
Family Trials — Return to England — Deputation 
Work — Impressions made by Personal Character — 
Tour on the Continent — Returns Alone to China — 
"Nevertheless Afterward" — A Great Earthquake — 
Riots in Canton — Additions to Medical School — Dr. 
Schofield's Death — History of Trust Deed . . 227 

CHAPTER XII. 

SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 

Success of Students— Doubts about Medical School- 
Views Regarding Country Work — Spiritual Results 
in Medical School — An Imperial Decoration — 
Striking Instance of Conversion— Prayer Answered— 
A Self-Supporting Chinese Evangelist— Evangelistic 
W T ork in Hospital Wards— Visit of the Cambridge 
Party— "A Time of Great Joy "— " Healed by 
Prayer"— Discipline in Medical School— Students' 
Prayer Meeting— A Chinese Naval Officer — Requests 
for United Prayer— Sickness— Visit to Taku— A 
Chinese Letter— Dr. Mackenzie's Bible Class- 
Hunger after Spiritual Things— Washing the Nets— 
"More Christianity than Medicine !" — Peace 
Restored . . . 247 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

STRANGE PHASES OF CHINESE LIFE. 

Page 

Appeal for a Colleague — Visit to Yen-Shan — Simple Faith 
of Country Converts— Steadfastness under Persecution 
— Inspection of Native Foundling Hospital — The 
Babies that Never Cried — An Athletic Patient — A 
Coffined Patient — A Busy Life — The Lonely Rag- 
picker — A Secret Disciple — " They thought him 
Mad" — Curiosities of Chinese Medical Treatment — 
Scorpion Broth — Laying out before Death — An 
Unnatural Wife — A Health Trip under Difficulties — 
A Tauist Priest — The Medical Missionary Journal 275 

CHAPTER XIV. 

GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 

Visit to Peking — Most Blessed Meetings — His Favourite 
Books — Rather Die than Deny Christ — Letters to a 
Young Missionary — "In Nothing be Anxious" — 
Spiritual Growth in Chinese Converts — Comparisons 
between Life in Nazareth and in China — Railways 
Contemplated — Kidnapping — Disturbance in the City 
— " Not Hard Work but Worry that Kills "—Need of 
Spiritual Power — A Helpful Meeting. • • . 293 

CHAPTER XV. 

GROWING IN GRACE. 

Growth in Spiritual Life — Relations with Foreign Com- 
munity — Bible Study — Interest in "Blue-jackets" — 
Real Cross-Bearing — Continental Sundays — Wei- 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

comes to New Missionaries — Congenial Companion- 
ship — Opinion of New Theology — Visit to Country 
Districts — Rough Travelling — Chinese Inns — A Self- 
willed Carter— Fair Day — Found at Last ! — A Roman 
Catholic Church — Hospitable Friends — Teacher No. 2 
— A Little Flock — The Crippled Schoolmaster — Too 
Late — Priest-Doctors — The Salt Merchant . • .317 

CHAPTER XVI. 

LAST THINGS. 

Chinese New Year — Paying off Epistolary Debts — 
Thoughts about Prayer — The Last Report — Last 
Home Letter — Busy Days — Desirability of Closing 
Medical School — The Vivisection Question — The 
Last Sunday — Illness — Good Friday — " I think the 
Lord is Calling Me " — A Solemn Farewell — " Quite 
Ready to go " — The Dawn of Easter Day — A Uni- 
versal Sorrow — Funeral Honours — " The Christians' 
Good-night " — At the Grave — A Chinaman' s Testimony 
— His Last Prayer — Loss of Official Patronage — " I 
will never Leave Thee " — Appointments of Medical 
Graduates — Last Memorials — A Biography in Stone . 345 



APPENDIX. 

I. North China.— New Hospital at Tien-tsin . 379 

CI. A Medical Review of Dr. Mackenzie's 

Work 385 

By F. C Roberts, M.B., CM. 



COXTEXTS. 



Page 

III. " Tke Evangelistic Side of a Medical 

Mission " 396 

By Dr. Mackenzie. Contributed to the China " Medical 
Missionary Journal? vol i., Xo. I. 

IV. "The Double Cure" 400 

By Dr. Mackenzie. Contributed to the China Medical 
Missionary Journal,'' vol. ii., Xo. 1, 



CHAPTER I. 
EARLY DA YS % 



The Fen Country — Yarmouth Rows and Chinese Streets — 
Bristol and School Life — Early Christian Influences — 
Mr. Moody's Visit — Confessing - Christ — The Young 
Worker — A Primitive Training College — Theatre Services 
"with Publicans and Sinners "—First Thoughts of 
Foreign Mission Work — What is a Medical Mission ? 
"The Double Cure " — Obstacles removed by Prayer. 



CHAPTER I. 
EARLY DA VS. 

THERE is not much of beauty or poetry to be 
found in the English fens of to-day. The great 
swamps have been drained, and where dark-green 
alders and golden reed beds once stretched for many 
a mile around the shining meres we see now a black, 
unsightly, steaming flat, dotted with scattered wind- 
mills for pumping out water, and covered with marshy 
herbage upon which cattle thrive. The spaces are 
multiplying where— 

" The land in flowery squares, 

Beneath a broad and equal blowing wind, 
Smells of the coming summer; " 

but the process of evolution is not yet complete. 
The mystery and majesty of the fen -land, of which 
Kingsley wrote with glowing pen " dipped in colours 
of the heart," and of which in his early days Tennyson 
loved to sing, has passed away for ever. 

Especially is this the case with that part of the 
fens through which the Yare meanders with turbid 
current to the sea, forming by its windings the pro- 
montory three miles long upon which the town of 
Yarmouth is built. 



JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



It was in this town that on August 25th, 1850, 
a child was born who was destined, in the provi- 
dence of God, to do so much towards carrying relief 
and healing to the homes of one of the most ancient 
of nations. Medical Missions, it is true, were no new 
thing in China when Dr. Mackenzie commenced work 
in that land, but it was those providential circum- 
stances in his career which gave him access to the 
homes of some of the highest Chinese officials, which 
made his life of such interest to those who watch with 
thankful hearts the progress of the gospel in China. 
For it can hardly be questioned that the considerable 
attention lately given by those filling high positions 
in the Empire to Western medicine and surgery had 
its origin in the great Viceroy's confidence in Dr. 
Mackenzie's medical skill, and is associated with his 
work. Before he had reached the meridian of life, 
he had accomplished a work the influence of which 
on the cause of missions in that land it would be 
difficult to estimate. 

Could the watchers by the cradle of that little child 
have been permitted for a moment to gaze onward 
into future years, they would have seen that although 
his grave would be made in a foreign land, and he 
would "return no more, nor see his native country," 
yet that the environment of his earliest and latest 
days would be, in many respects, strikingly similar. 
The Chihli plain, on which he would lie down to 
sleep his last sleep, and the Norfolk fens of the old 
country, have much in common. There is in both 



EARLY DAYS. 



cases the same absence of mound or rising ground, 
with only a few willows here and there to break the 
monotony of the scene. The same harvest of reeds 
in autumn is gathered from the marshy plain, while 
not unfrequently the high road runs along a bank, to 
be out of the reach of inundations to which the land 
is subject. The featureless Chihli plain touches a 
horizon famous for the grandeur of its sunsets, like 
the fens of the home land ; and the curious narrow 
rows for which the town of Yarmouth is distinguished 
seem to have taken for their prototypes the Chinese 
streets, along which the name of " Ma Tai-fu " and 
his wonderful medical skill was destined to become 
beloved and familiar as a household word. 

John Kenneth Mackenzie was the younger son 
of Alexander and Margaret Mackenzie, his father 
being a Scotchman from Ross-shire, and his mother 
a Welsh lady from Breconshire. On both sides his 
grandparents were pious people, and his paternal 
great-grandfather was looked up to as an eminently 
God-fearing man in the district in which he lived. An 
enormous ivory snuff-box, mounted with silver, with 
his name and arms and the date of presentation, 1786, 
engraved on it, is preserved in the family. It was 
presented to him by the Church members, and is a 
curious sign of old Scotch habits. 

Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie removed from Yarmouth 
to Bristol when their younger son was an infant, 
and it was in that city his boyhood and early youth 
were spent. Kenneth's father and mother were both 



JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



members of the Presbyterian Church in Bristol, his 
father being for many years an elder there, till laid 
aside by ill health and advancing years. The first 
pastor of this Church, the Rev. Matthew Dickie, who 
died in 1 87 1, was a powerful preacher and an eminent 
Christian. Mr. Mackenzie was deeply attached to him. 

In his boyhood the lad Kenneth is spoken of as 
being of a reserved, retiring disposition, but quick- 
tempered and easily provoked. He was remarkable 
in after life for great strength of will and undaunted 
courage in the face of difficulties that would have 
made many men despair and completely lose heart. 

To his Highland blood doubtless he owed a 
certain reticence of manner, combined with an inten- 
sity of feeling, which in a marked degree characterised 
his likes and dislikes. Although not without faults of 
temper, he had a very tender and sympathising heart, 
and much gentleness and delicacy of manner. He 
could be stern at times, but it was conviction and 
strength of principle, not harshness of disposition, 
that prompted his actions on these occasions. 

In his early days he was usually ready to defend 
any position he took up with great warmth and 
vigour ; for at that time self-confidence and indepen- 
dence were not insignificant factors in his character, 
and his mind was not of that type which finds 
yielding easy. 

But as time went on, under the constraining 
influence of the love of Christ the graces of the Spirit 
blossomed out in his life with such rare beauty as to 



EARLY DAYS. 



form a character of singular attractiveness. Few men, 
perhaps, have lived a life of such practical holiness, 
or have been more distinguished for fidelity to their 
vocation, unworldliness of spirit, and a will chastened 
by sorrow into glad submission. The ideal of the 
poet, expressed in the lines : — 

" O God, that I could waste my life for others, 
With no ends of my own ! 
That I could pour myself into my brothers, 
And live for them alone ! " 

more nearly found its embodiment in Kenneth 
Mackenzie than in many even of earth's noblest 
sons. 

From his earliest days young Mackenzie was sur- 
rounded by holy and happy influences, his home being 
apparently one of those in which Christian truth is 
so constantly instilled into the young hearts that in 
some cases they are unconscious of the moment when 
the new life in Christ Jesus is born into their spirits, 
and can hardly remember the time when spiritual 
things were not a very living reality to them. This 
was not the case, however, with young Mackenzie. 
He was accustomed to speak with much distinctness, 
as we shall afterwards see, of the time of his passing 
from death unto life, and his definite realization of 
union with Christ. 

His education was carried on, at a private school in 
Bristol, by Dr. John Stone of King Square ; but he 
showed little liking for study. There was little to 
distinguish his early days from those of other boys 



JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



full of spirits, fonder of healthy exercise than o! 
school work. He left school at the age of fifteen, and 
entered business as a clerk in a merchant's office. 

During this time he seems to have occupied his 
spare hours with general reading of an instructive and 
helpful character, with a view to mental development. 
He joined some of his young acquaintances in attend- 
ing various meetings which were held regularly at the 
rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association in 
Bristol. 

There was a prayer-meeting on Friday evenings, 
and a Bible-class on Sunday afternoons, conducted by 
Mr. Thomas Ostler, who writes in affectionate terms 
his remembrances of the days when as a lad Dr. 
Mackenzie came under his influence. Ministers and 
evangelists visiting Bristol seem to have been fre- 
quently invited to speak to the members of these 
young men's classes, and though without doubt the 
work of preparation and the sowing of the good seed 
had been going on for many years before, it was on 
two of these occasions that Kenneth's young heart 
seems to have been brought face to face with the 
absolute necessity of making a definite stand on 
the Lord's side and confessing Christ before his 
companions. 

He was a quiet, thoughtful lad at this time, of 
serious disposition ; but he had evidently begun to 
feel that sense of insufficiency and helplessness at the 
thought of facing alone the mysteries and problems 
of human life which comes so often to young spirits 



EARLY DAYS. 



on the threshold of life. This painful sense of need 
proves, not unfrequently, a Divine clue, by the following 
of which the youthful heart is led into the very presence 
of its rightful Lord and Saviour, and finds in Him 
full satisfaction for all its high aspirations. 

The first of the occasions mentioned above, which 
seems to have formed an important link in the chain 
of events which were blessed by the Spirit to the 
awakening of young Mackenzie and bringing him to 
the step of entire consecration to the Master's service, 
was a certain May Sunday in the year 1867. The 
subject for conversation at the Bible-class, we are told, 
was " A Good Conscience," and many of the young 
men in attendance were much impressed. Before they 
separated, an address was given by Mr. D. L. Moody, 
who was then on his first visit to England, previous to 
the time when he made his great evangelistic tour. 

The young men who desired prayer to be offered on 
their behalf were requested to rise from their seats, 
and Mackenzie with many others did so. Fifteen 
members of the class decided for Christ ; but although 
he of whom we write always dated his earnest desire 
for a spiritual life from that occasion, — and he was 
undoubtedly deeply impressed by the afternoon's ser- 
vices, — yet, as he himself remarks in a letter of a year 
later, "It was only momentary, and I soon fell away." 

It does not seem to have been a very happy year 
that immediately followed this Sunday when the 
young man's heart was first awakened to its own 
helplessness and deep need of a Saviour. 



JOHN KENNETH MACKENIZE. 



For a considerable time he attended the Association 
meetings with great regularity, but for some reason 
found a difficulty in taking the final step of casting 
himself in simple trust upon the promises of a living 
Saviour. The leader of the Bible-class seems to have 
taken a great interest in the spiritual welfare of his 
young friends, and listened with much sympathy to 
the doubts and fears they freely expressed to him at 
the special meetings which were held on their behalf. 
But, as one of his companions at that time tells us, 
they often left these meetings with heavy hearts, 
talking longingly of those spiritual blessings which as 
yet they were unable to accept as their own. Yet 
even at this time, though Mackenzie had not found 
peace and rest of soul, he knew where alone it was to 
be found, and would often counsel his young com- 
panions to "look up," believing that some day full 
light would dawn. 

Sometimes he grew weary with the struggle, in his 
longing desire to attain not only to nobleness of life 
and character, but to the secret of life in Jesus. 

He tried for a time to repress these yearnings, 
which it seemed impossible to satisfy, and for a while 
gave up all attendance at the meetings which had 
hitherto attracted him so much. But the Holy Spirit 
had begun in his heart the blessed work of creating 
that dissatisfaction with self which can only cease 
with rest in Christ. 

The anniversary of the day on which he had been 
impressed by Mr. Moody's address drew near, and 



EARLY DAYS. n 



once again Mackenzie was found in his old place in 
the Association rooms. 

On this occasion Mr. W. Hind Smith, of Exetei 
Hall, London, then a Y.M.C.A. Secretary in the 
north of England, was present, and had been asked to 
address the meeting. The rooms were full to over- 
flowing, and at the close of his remarks Mr. Smith 
called upon the young men present openly to accept 
or refuse Christ as their Master. It was a solemn 
moment for more than one of his audience when, after 
a considerable pause, Kenneth Mackenzie and several 
of his companions rose up and avowed themselves 
followers of the Lord Jesus. One of the young men 
who on this occasion confessed his faith in Christ, after 
the lapse of some years, followed his friend of earlier 
days to China, and is now engaged in work there 
in connection with the China Inland Mission. He 
speaks of the joy with which all their hearts were 
filled as they left the Association rooms on that 
memorable afternoon, and of how, as three of them 
accompanied Mackenzie part of the way home, upon 
reaching a quiet spot on the hill-top they re-dedicated 
themselves to be henceforth, in the strength of Jesus, 
true-hearted followers of their blessed Master. 

Thus suddenly and solemnly came the answer to all 
his weary doubts and questionings. For the answer 
came, and in the only way in which it ever can come 
to any yearning human soul, — in the Person of Jesus 
Christ Himself. Mackenzie always looked back upon 
this day as marking a very real change in his inner 



JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



life : he was conscious of a voice speaking peace to his 
heart, the same voice that centuries before had stilled 
the storm on the Galilean lake. 

How frequently have the philosophers of these later 
days scoffed at what is termed the methodistical doc- 
trine of sudden conversion ; and yet, if Christianity is 
a life and not a philosophy, in what other way is it 
possible for it to come into being than suddenly, as 
all life ever comes ? Growth is no sudden thing, of 
course, and in the Christian life it only begins beneath 
these lower skies. It is the boundless shores of 
eternity that see the harvest time of what is here 
sometimes only a sickly drooping blade. Sometimes ; 
but this is not as it should be, when the great Sower 
of the seed has provided all the essentials for the 
development even here into the ear and the full corn 
in the ear. Active service for the Master, in whatever 
sphere the believer's lot may be cast, is the blessed 
secret of growth in the Christian life ; and imme- 
diately Kenneth Mackenzie commenced seeking for 
opportunities of inducing others to share the joy which 
filled his own heart. 

Together with some of the friends who had con- 
fessed Christ with him, he stationed himself on Sunday 
nights in a crowded thoroughfare, in order that he 
might distribute tracts to the passers-by. This work 
was somewhat of a trial to a youth naturally so 
reserved and undemonstrative, but it seems to have 
been the service that first suggested itself, and it was 
characteristic of him to the last that he never shrank 



EARLY DAYS. 13 



from what he considered duty because it was not 
exactly agreeable to his feelings. " Afterwards," says 
one of the little party, " we thanked God together for 
grace given us to overcome the pride which then 
needed to be crucified." 

In September of this year Mackenzie united himself 
with the Presbyterian Church in Bristol, of which it 
has been previously mentioned his father was an 
elder. The story of the change which had passed 
over him is thus told in his own words : — 

" You ask me whether I hope that I really trust in 
and love the Lord Jesus Christ. In His great loving- 
kindness unto me, I can now say that I do. My reason 
for so thinking is that the Holy Spirit has borne witness 
to my spirit, telling me that I am an heir of God, a 
joint-heir with Christ, and an inheritor of the kingdom 
of heaven, and convincing me that the blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth from all sin. On May 10th, 1867, 
when Mr. Moody addressed the Bible-class, I first 
thought of religion, but it was momentary, and I 
soon fell away. On the anniversary of that day in 
the present year, I first, while at the Bible-class, 
thought earnestly and seriously of my soul's welfare, 
and determined with God's help to throw off sin and 
cling to my Saviour. Since then I have continued, I 
thank Him, to grow in grace." 

Opportunities of service seem to have increased 
rapidly ; as is usually the case when heart and hands 
are alike ready to do the Master's will. 

It was not possible for a man with the strong 



14 JOHN KENNETH. MACKENZIE. 

nature of the subject of this memoir to do anything 
by halves. Having come out on the Lord's side, he 
could not help but take up active work in the harvest 
field which is the world. Open-air services, lodging- 
house visitation, and ragged-school work, all engaged 
his energies. Mackenzie is spoken of at this time as 
a leader among the little band of Christian young 
men with whom he was acquainted. They were all 
deeply in earnest in their desire to influence the 
numbers around them who were in ignorance of the 
love of Jesus, and they were occasionally asked to 
speak at religious meetings and to preach in the 
surrounding villages. Eager to gain greater pro- 
ficiency in public speaking, with the hope of making 
themselves meet for the Master's use, they decided 
to commence a meeting for mutual improvement in 
this respect. The place chosen for the gathering of 
the little company was a broken-down cow-shed, 
about two miles away from the town; and the hour 
five o'clock in the morning : the conditions being, 
without doubt, sufficiently hard to test their interest 
and sincerity. They used to take turns in reading 
specially-prepared sermons, and young Mackenzie's 
are spoken of by his companions as being remark- 
ably well written, and a great means of grace to them 
all. The disused cow-house, with its floor of bare 
earth upon which they knelt in prayer at the begin- 
ning of these meetings, thus became to them a train- 
ing college for service in far wider fields than they 
had as yet been called upon to occupy. As the result 



EARLY DAYS. 15 



of this preparation, Mackenzie very soon took part 
in the special services which for several winters were 
held in the theatre at Bristol. 

The labour and study necessary to enable him to 
take part in these public meetings occupied much 
of his time and thoughts. The small note-books 
which he had in use are filled with anecdotes for 
the illustration of Bible truths, culled from various 
sources, in some cases being obtained from books, and 
in others being incidents of personal experience. 

It was in connection with these special theatre 
services that he met with Colonel Duncan, who 
afterwards became his close friend, and whose influ- 
ence was used by God to induce him to consecrate 
his life to service in the foreign field as a medical 
missionary. 

Even thus early in his Christian life Mackenzie 
seems to have drunk deeply of the Master's spirit, 
and to have worked and prayed for the conversion of 
the most hopeless and degraded of his fellow-men and 
women. In a little diary belonging to this period of 
his life, interspersed among notes of gospel addresses 
and illustrations culled from all quarters, we find some 
graphic accounts of the people with whom he came 
in contact, and whom he tried to win as trophies for 
his beloved Master. One of these persons was a 
notorious burglar of respectable connections, known 
as " the king of the thieves." This man's story is 
related as follows in the young worker's diary : — 

" I came to know him one Sunday afternoon while 



16 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

in Tower Lane with Lenington ; we entered a house 
and he followed us, and I asked him if he would not 
come to the meeting. As he refused to do so, we both 
spoke to him about his soul ; he seemed impressed, 
and plainly told us what he was, and that he would 
give it up. We left him, and after a time he came 
into the meeting. A Sunday or so after, he came 
to the Mission Service of his own accord, and I 
invited him to the prayer-meeting, but he did not 
come. But one Friday evening, as I was returning 
from business, I saw him in Bridewell Street, and he 
passed me at some distance. I felt unable to go on 
my way, and, the Spirit leading me, I pursued him, 
and again invited him to the prayer-meeting. He 
promised to come, and, God be praised, he did come. 
After it was over I went for a long walk with him, 
and he told me a good deal of his past history. He 

was nephew of Mrs. , and had been a member of 

a Theological Class at Mr. Haycroft's, Broadmead 
Chapel. At eighteen he began his work of thieving, 
and was considered very clever at it. He told me he 
had been before the magistrate, on suspicion and 
otherwise, two hundred times, but had so eluded 
them that 'he had never received more than two 
months' imprisonment at a time. He had gained 
hundreds of pounds, but it had never brought him 
any good, he said. 

" He was one of a gang of seventeen thieves who 
went to Germany, and all but himself had been cap- 
tured : he had managed to make his escape to France, 



EARLY DAYS. 17 



He had not been at his old work for two or three 
weeks, and had been trying to find employment at 
his trade of joiner, having, during the past six years, 
always kept some of his tools by him. He said he 
had quite determined never to take to his old life 
again." 

Another form of Christian service which at this 
time occupied much of Mackenzie's thoughts, was 
what was known as Midnight Mission work. This 
was evidently undertaken in concert with Christian 
friends much oldei and more experienced than him- 
self, and, doubtless, for a man so young it cannot be 
considered a very suitable sphere of labour ; but the 
very fact that Mackenzie, with his sensitive, reserved 
disposition, should have engaged in it is a proof of 
that zeal for the Master's service which possessed his 
soul even from the earliest days of his Christian life. 
That he exhibited much tact and wisdom in this 
difficult work may be seen from another quotation 
taken from his diary. 

" The other Sunday evening," he writes, " Gittens 
and Lenington brought a whole gang of men and 
girls from a public-house to a meeting in Tailor's 

Court. One, by name , was the worst of all ; she 

refused to come inside to the meeting, and waited 
for her companions outside the door. I followed her, 
and commenced talking to her about her soul. At 
first she seemed hardened, and would not answer me, 
so I asked her about her home, and if she had ever 
attended a Sunday-school, and then she replied to my 

2 



18 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

questions. Her parents lived at Newport, she said, 
but she was not willing to give me their address. She 
told me she lived at Walter's public-house, Broad 
Street, and said, if she came to the decision to give 
up her present life and enter the Home she would 
see me at the same place next Sunday. Not seeing 
her again for a fortnight, I went with Gittens to the 
public-house at which she had told me she lived. 
We saw her, and, before leaving, gave her a tract. 
, Though unwilling to come to the meetings, she seemed 
much softened. She was only eighteen years of age." 
It was after one of the theatre services which have 
been before referred to, that, in the course of a walk 
home late one night with his friend Colonel Duncan, 
Mackenzie first communicated his hope of some day 
engaging in the Lord's work in the foreign field. 
They had been detained, for a long time after the 
service was over that night, conversing with many 
anxious and enquiring souls. From the earliest days 
of his realization of life in Christ, Mackenzie's one 
idea had been to follow his Master closely. He had 
not a little of the heroic in his disposition, as is seen 
by his deliberate choice of work which must have 
been a trial to a nature which was a singular combi- 
nation of the enthusiastic and the reserved. In the 
course of his reading he had come across the memoirs 
of the Rev. William Burns and Dr. James Henderson, 
and these books seem to have created in his heart 
a desire, if it proved to be the Lord's will, to serve 
Christ in the foreign field. 



EARLY DAYS. 19 



He spoke to Colonel Duncan of this desire, and 
received the reply : " You are still very young ; would 
it not be well to go in for the study of medicine, 
and in course of time go out to China as a Medical 
Missionary?" 

His thoughts had naturally been drawn towards 
that great empire because the workers in whose 
lives he had become interested had laboured there. 
Mackenzie replied by enquiring what were the cha- 
racteristics of a Medical Mission, and was told that if 
he would call upon his friend next day, he would show 
him a small volume, entitled, " The Double Cure ; 
or, What is a Medical Mission ? " This little book 
seems to have made a lasting impression on the 
young man's mind, since, only a few months before 
his death, in the midst of his unwearying labours for 
the souls as well as the bodies of his patients, he 
wrote a striking article for the China Medical Mis- 
sionary Journal wit the same title. And certainly 
in few lives was this happy combination more fully 
exemplified than in his own. 

After reading the book lent to him by Colonel 
Duncan, Mackenzie resolved, if he could obtain his 
parents' consent, to give up his business situation and 
begin the study of medicine, with the view, at the end 
of his course, of going out to China as a Medical 
Missionary. When he consulted his parents upon 
the matter they failed to see things in the same 
light, and were not willing to give their consent to 
the proposal. 



20 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Another Christian friend at this time was Mr. 
Gordon, of Pitburg and Parkhill, whose wife was the 
author of the little book which aroused his interests 
in Medical Mission work. 

Their acquaintance had commenced at the Sunday 
evening theatre services, in which both were taking 
a prominent part Hearing of the obstacle in the 
way of his young friend taking the path in which it 
seemed to him God had called him to walk, Mr. 
Gordon proposed that Colonel Duncan, Mr. Steele, 
a well-known surgeon in Bristol, and himself should 
lay the matter before the Lord in prayer, asking 
that, if it were His will, their young friend's desire 
should be accomplished and all difficulties removed 
from his path. Towards the end of his life Dr. 
Mackenzie wrote : " I do indeed believe in prayer. I 
am forced to believe in it, and say, from practical 
experience, I am sure that God does hear and answer 
our prayers." 

On this occasion the answer to prayer was not long 
delayed. It was almost as in the days of Daniel, " At 
the beginning of thy supplication the commandment 
came forth ; " for, on Kenneth's return to his home that 
night, he found his parents' objections had all melted 
away, and they were quite willing for him to enter 
upon the studies which were to prepare him for the 
service to which he felt himself called. 



CHAPTER II. 
STUDENT LIFE AND VOYAGE TO CHINA. 



Medical Studies — Appeal from Hankow — Offers his Services 
to L.M.S. — Youthful Impatience — " I wish to have no 
Will of My Own " — Married versus Single Missionaries — 
Meeting Moody — Good-bye to England — The First Sunday 
at Sea — Occupations on Board Ship — A Grateful Retro- 
spect — All for Christ — The Sights of Malta — Port Said — 
The Suez Canal — The Tropics — First Sight of Chinamen — 
Death of an Opium-smoker — The Banks of the Yang-tse- 
kiang — The New Home. 



CHAPTER II. 

STUDENT LIFE AND VOYAGE TO CHINA. 

UNFORTUNATELY, there are not many details 
to hand relating to the medical education of the 
subject of our memoir. The main facts, however, are 
as follows. In October 1870 he entered the Bristol 
Medical School, where he prosecuted his studies with 
success, and at the expiration of four years obtained 
his diplomas of M.R.C.S. London and L.R.C.P. 
Edinburgh. 

Subsequently, before leaving for China, he still 
further equipped himself for his future work by 
attendance at the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital in 
London. 

It was while in Edinburgh obtaining his physician's 
diploma that Mackenzie formed the acquaintance 
of Dr. Lowe, of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary 
Society. He had already felt himself drawn towards 
China as a field of labour, having been much interested 
in the memoirs of Burns and Henderson and their 
work in that land. Afterwards, an address delivered 
by the Rev. Griffith John, at Colston Hall, Bristol, 
had stirred his heart and strengthened his desire to 
devote his life to service for the Master in the far-off 



H JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

" Middle Kingdom." By this time Mr. John had 
returned to his work in China, but another member 
of the Hankow Mission was at home on furlough, and 
in frequent conversations with Dr. Lowe had laid 
before him the great need there was for a medical 
missionary to take charge of the hospital there. Just 
at that time, stations in various parts of the mission 
field were in need of medical men, while all the 
students in connection with the Edinburgh Medical 
Mission who expected to graduate within the next 
eighteen months had already received appointments. 
It was decided, therefore, to appeal to advanced 
medical students and young medical men, in the hope 
that some one might be led to offer himself for this 
service. A letter to this effect was inserted in the 
Edinburgh Medical Missionary Journal, and arrested 
Mackenzie's attention. He sought an introduction to 
the writer, and made himself fully acquainted with all 
circumstances connected with the Hankow work. Just 
before leaving the beautiful northern capital he spent 
a long afternoon with his new friend, afterwards a 
colleague of his own both in Hankow and in Tien-tsin. 
Facing up and down Prince's Street they talked over 
the needs of the station far away in Central China ; 
and the young doctor seemed to hear the voice of 
the Master calling him to offer himself, his talents, 
and his energies for his Lord's use in that great 
Chinese city. He returned to Bristol with his mind 
full of the idea, but determined to wait upon God in 
prayer for clearer guidance in the matter. 



STUDENT LIFE AND VOYAGE TO CHINA. 25 

A few days after, in the following letter, he com- 
municated his decision to Dr. Lowe : — 

" I write to let you know that, after long consider- 
ation and prayer, I have come to the determination, I 
trust under the Lord's guidance, to offer my services 
to the London Missionary Society for medical mission 
work in Hankow. 

" I have been able to come to this early decision 
as the result of several occurrences. My friends at 
home have not raised the slightest objection to my 
volunteering. I have had two appointments brought 
before me this very day by professional friends, and 
therefore it becomes necessary that I should decide at 
once upon the course I intend to take. The whole 
matter seems to be so entirely arranged of the Lord 
that I dare not hold back. I shall be glad to hear 
from you in reply to this. Will you lay my offer 
before the London Mission, or should I apply to the 
Secretary ? 

"Once having come to a decision, I shall be ready 
to enter upon preparatory arrangements as soon as 
possible." 

Dr. Lowe immediately communicated with the 
Home Secretary of the London Missionary Society : — 

" I rejoice to tell you that we have found a most 
excellent and devoted young medical missionary for 
Hankow. While a student he has been a most 
successful evangelist, the Lord having given him 
many souls as seals to his ministry. He has just 
passed his examinations as physician in Edinburgh 



26 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

with great credit. Professionally, he is very highly 
accomplished. He has studied all along with a view 
to Medical Missionary work, but did not trouble his 
mind looking out for a sphere of labour till he had 
passed his examinations. 

" On the very day he passed he read the notice 
about the vacancy in Hankow, which I inserted in 
our last Quarterly Paper, and at once came and had 
an interview with me. I am very greatly pleased 
with him, and I am sure you will be. 

" Mr. Bryson and Mr. Cullen likewise are delighted 
with the interviews they have had with him. 

" He is a Presbyterian, but a most liberal-minded 
man, and one who is ready to co-operate with all who 
love the Saviour." 

A few days afterwards Dr. Mackenzie wrote to the 
Secretary of the London Missionary Society offering 
himself for the vacant post in Hankow. 

" I had better explain to you," he says, " how I come 
to be in this position. In the early part of 1870 I 
was led, I trust under the guidance of God, to study 
medicine with the object of, at the close of my curri- 
culum, devoting my life to Medical Missions. I was 
in Edinburgh the first week of this month, attend- 
ing my final examinations at the Royal College of 
Physicians. Having been successful and obtained my 
physician's diploma, I called on Mr. Coldstream, W.S., 
who is one of the Directors of the Medical Missionary 
Society, to make enquiries about Medical Missions. 
He informed me of the need of such a missionary in 



STUDENT LIFE AND VOYAGE TO CHINA. 2? 

Hankow, and introduced me to Dr. Lowe. I also 
saw Mr. Bryson and Mr. Cullen. 

" Having become acquainted with all the circum- 
stances of the case, I returned home to consider and 
pray over the matter. I have been enabled to come 
to a decision, and hence my letter." 

Having made up his own mind upon the subject, 
with characteristic impetuosity Dr. Mackenzie was 
exceedingly anxious to have the matter settled at 
once with the Society, and seems to have left out of 
consideration the fact that a Board of Directors cannot 
move quite as rapidly as single individuals. He was 
intending to be up in Town in the course of two days, 
and requested an interview with the Board or the 
Secretary of the London Mission at an hour which 
he named. Apparently he was himself conscious that 
he was expecting matters to be arranged with unusual 
haste, for he adds a postscript to the effect that he 
would have given longer notice had that been possible, 
but Dr. Lowe had taken a week to answer his letter ; 
an unconscionable time, evidently, to the young man 
eager to have his future career definitely settled. 

To those who knew the beloved subject of this 
memoir in after years, when, under the chastening 
hand of a wise and loving Father, the fruits of the 
Spirit had ripened into maturity, and were clearly 
visible in his walk and conversation, it seems strange 
to look back at passages in his life which exhibit him 
in a not altogether attractive light. And yet a faith- 
ful and accurate record of the life of even one of the 



28 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

best of men must not exclude the mention of those 
failings and shortcomings which show they have not 
yet attained to the stature of perfect men in Christ 
Jesus. 

That lowliness of spirit was not at this time a 
prominent feature in Mackenzie's character is appa- 
rent from the fact that he was far from pleased at 
the reception he received from the gentleman then 
acting as Home Secretary for the London Missionary 
Society. He had evidently expected to be welcomed 
with open arms, and accepted almost immediately ; 
and it was exceedingly trying to his high-spirited 
nature to be informed that it would be necessary for 
him to appear before a Board of Directors, when his 
application would be duly considered. With con- 
siderable feeling he wrote to a friend : " Mr. R 

was to a certain extent kind, but I was treated alto- 
gether, I thought, as if I had come up to ask for a 
special favour, or a situation, at their hands. Self 
very much prompted me to have nothing further to 
do with the Society ; but I trust, with the Lord's help, 
I shall always be able to keep down self, and therefore 
hope to go and wait upon the Board on December 
14th, if the Lord will." 

The day after the date thus appointed Mackenzie 
writes : " I saw the Examining Committee of the 
London Missionary Society yesterday, and they 
accepted my offer of service for Hankow. I had a 
most kind reception from every one." 

He goes on to ask the friend to whom he was 



STUDENT LIFE AND VOYAGE TO CHINA. 29 



writing if he considered, from personal experience oi 
Hankow, it would be unwise for a European to begin 
life in China in the summer. " Now that the matter 
is settled," he continues, " I should like to be in 
Hankow as soon as possible, to begin the process of 
breaking the back of the language." 

A fortnight later he writes to the same corre- 
spondent, that it has been decided by the Board that 
it will be in every way desirable that he should 
proceed to Hankow in April. 

At this time he was taking charge of the practice 
of a medical friend at Shirehampton, near Bristol, and 
he writes : " I intend to go up to London as soon as 
I can conveniently resign this post, and shall remain 
there until April ; then, if no obstacle prevents my 
leaving, and I see clearly it is the Lord's will, I shall 
start for China. I am glad Dr. Mullens has specified 
a time, as it shows me pretty clearly that April is the 
Lord's time, and I wish, even in the matter of leaving, 
to have no will of my own, but that the Lord guide 
me." 

With reference to the question of the wisdom of 
young missionaries going out to their stations, and 
remaining unmarried for several years, Mackenzie 
seems to have had a very decided opinion. 

" I am afraid I gave you, while in Edinburgh," he 
writes, " a wrong impression. I told you I was 
engaged to be married, and this is so ; but I am not 
anxious to enter into that condition speedily, unless 
it would be beneficial to the work. Now, most of the 



30 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

friends of the Society specially advised me to wait a 
couple of years, until I had done something at .the 
language, before getting married. Mr. John, in his 
letter which was read to me, strongly urged this, as I 
could then devote more time to study, etc. I myself 
should also like to try the climate before taking the 
responsibility of marrying. So that, all things con- 
sidered, I am very wishful to go out a bachelor. My 
future wife, I hope, will be, the Lord willing, sent out 
under guardianship in some two years time. Though, 
as a beginner, I should like to wait awhile, I can 
easily understand that when once engaged in the 
daily routine of work, the language to some extent 
mastered, the missionary's life must be rather a lonely 
one; in that case a wife would be a solace and a help." 

According to the arrangement previously spoken 
of, Dr. Mackenzie left Bristol in January, and shortly 
after his arrival in London had the pleasure of what 
he speaks of as " a never-to-be-forgotten meeting " 
with Mr. Moody, who at that time was commencing 
his great evangelistic campaign in England. It seems 
to have greatly cheered the heart of the young 
soldier, who was just putting on his armour for service 
in the foreign field, to receive words of counsel and 
blessing from one who, some years before, had been 
the instrument in God's hands of leading him to more 
earnest thought concerning the verities of the unseen 
and eternal. 

Mackenzie assisted in various ways, in his few 
leisure hours, at the meetings held in the great 



STUDENT LIFE AND VOYAGE TO CHINA. 31 



Agricultural Hall in the month of March 1875, when 
Sankey's singing and Moody's earnest words were 
blessed to many souls. 

At this time he paid a flying visit to a friend at 
Trinity College, Cambridge, and was much impressed 
and cheered by the little band of earnest Christian 
spirits he met with among the undergraduates. On 
Sunday evening he gave an address at a Mission 
Room, after having attended service in the morning 
at Trinity College, where he heard Canon Lightfoot 
preach. 

The vessel in which it was arranged that the young 
missionary should sail for his distant sphere of labour 
was the SS. Gkylyon 

He had been down to Bristol to bid farewell to his 
parents. " I left home at 6.30 on Thursday morning, 
April 8th, after a trying parting with father and 
mother," he records in his diary. His elder and 
only brother accompanied him on his journey back 
to the great city. The two days before the vessel 
sailed seem to have been very busy ones ; but he 
again found time to pay visits to the Agricultural 
Hall, where Messrs. Moody and Sankey were draw- 
ing immense crowds, the great building being packed 
an hour before the time at which services were 
advertised to commence. " While we waited the 
choir sung sweet hymns," he writes. " Mr. Moody's 
sermon was very powerful, full of reality and life. 
Mr. Sankey sang ' The Ninety and Nine * with great 
richness and pathos." 



32 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

These revival meetings seem to have been among 
Mackenzie's last memories of the home-land on this 
occasion, since on the morning of April ioth he 
bade farewell to his brother, the good ship Glen- 
lyon leaving the docks at about ten o'clock. That 
night saw the vessel anchored off the Nore, and she 
passed the white cliffs of Dover shortly after eight 
on Sunday morning. " This is probably the last of 
England I shall see for some time," he writes ; " the 
Lord only knows if I may see it again." 

It being the Lord's Day, Mackenzie obtained per- 
mission from the captain to hold a service on board. 
On this first occasion, however, none of the ship's 
company attended, but the young missionary and 
one other passenger spent the time in reading and 
talking together over portions of St. Matthew's 
Gospel and in prayer. " May the Lord bless this be- 
ginning, and keep me consistent in the Christian life. 
O Lord, make me a burning and a shining light 
to all on board," is an entry in his journal of that 
day. Among the books which seem to have engaged 
his attention was Carlyle's " French Revolution." 
" I have finished Carlyle," he writes. " What a book ! 
so striking and eloquent. Carlyle is fascinating ! " 
Other books which seem to have interested him at 
this time were a volume of Dr. Reynolds' " Sermons " 
and Macintosh's " Leviticus," which he speaks of 
as " most instructive." From his diary we find that 
Dr. Mackenzie threw himself with much interest 
into the whole life of that miniature world, the ship's 



STUDENT LIFE AND VOYAGE TO CHINA. 33 

company. He made friends with the sailors, and got 
himself initiated into all the mysteries of signalling. 
He played quoits with the captain and passengers, 
and found it " very good exercise." The second 
Sunday on board his small audience of one had 
increased to ten, and he writes of being much helped 
as he spoke to them upon our Lord's conversation 
with Nicodemus. 

He was always a lover of nature, and writes with 
delight of the lovely moonlight nights and the glorious 
sunsets on the sea. 

On May 7th the following entry occurs in his 
diary : "It is five years since I left business to study 
medicine for Medical Mission work. China was 
frequently in my thoughts ; now I am on my way 
thither as a Medical Missionary. Surely the Lord 
has guided me. May I be wholly devoted to His 
service." On the next Sunday he writes : " I have 
had sweet communion with God this evening, and 
have enjoyed much comfort from the study of the 
Word to-day. I see there are no two courses ; it must 
be all for Christ, or else the soul gets dead and cold. 
Doing everything to His glory, and making His 
glory our object in every matter, then only is there 
joy and peace. O Lord, may it be thus with me ! " 
Then, with reference to the service he had been 
holding on board, he continues : " How fearfully in- 
different men seem to be to the wonderful truths of 
the Gospel, and how powerless are those who are not 
co-workers with God to influence them in any way J " 

3 



34 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



The run on shore at Malta was a refreshing change 
to the passengers wearied with the monotony of life 
on board ship. 

Mackenzie writes enthusiastically of his first view 
of that island : — " It was a lovely moonlight night, I 
never saw such a splendid moon ; such a purely 
brilliant white, you could read easily by it. The 
pilot came singing out to us from his boat the usual 
salutation, 'All well on board?' We steamed into 
the harbour at once ; and a very pretty sight it was 
to see the town lit up with gas, and the houses and 
fortifications showing out plainly in the moonlight. 
With two other passengers I went ashore at 6.30 a.m. 
in a small boat, with a beak -like prow. We took one 
of the boatmen with us to show us the way. We 
passed through Floriana, a small town with one pretty 
street, to Valetta, the chief town of the island. 

" St. John's Cathedral was also visited, full of memo- 
rials of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem ; outside 
very dingy, but within most magnificent, everything 
to catch the eye and the imagination." 

The Glenlyon reached Hong Kong on May 25th, 
and Mr. Edge of the London Mission came on 
board in search of the young Medical Missionary. 

Sholto Douglas was at that time visiting the colony 
as the guest of the Bishop of Victoria, and was 
holding evangelistic services there. 

By June 3rd the Glenlyon had reached Shanghai, 
and on the 4th the young doctor took passage on the 
Tchang, which started early next morning on her 



STUDENT LIFE AND VOYAGE TO CHINA. 35 

trip of more than six hundred miles up the great 
Yang-tse-kiang. It could not but be a voyage of 
considerable interest to one whose heart for years had 
been drawn towards China. So broad is the great 
river that for nearly one hundred miles one seems 
to be crossing some great inland sea, out of sight 
of land. Near to Chin Kiang the beautiful Silver 
Island is passed, with ancient shrines nestling among 
the foliage which clothes its rocky sides. The bold 
peaks of Lu-Shan, the famous range of which Li 
T'ai Po, a well-known Chinese poet, wrote in glowing 
numbers, also attracts the admiring gaze of the 
travellers, and the rock islands known as the Great 
and Little Orphan diversify the scene. The Tcha?tg 
reached Hankow on the evening of June 8th, and 
Dr. Mackenzie received a warm welcome from his 
future colleagues, Mr. and Mrs. Griffith John and 
Mr. Foster. 



CHAPTER III. 
LIFE IN HANKOW. 



The Heart of the Empire — Pioneering Work in Hankow — 
History of Medical Mission — Studying Chinese — Chinese 
Street Sights — "We have Doctors and Remedies of Our 
Own " — Prejudice Conquered — Yang-tse Floods — Among 
the Sailors — Union Among the Missionaries — Fever — Visit 
to Kiukiang — The Temple of the Dragon King — Resuming 
Work — The Preaching in Glad Tidings Halls — 
Wuchang — The Temple of Hades — The Blind See — Aim 
in Hospital Work — Showers of Blessing. 



CHAPTER III. 
LIFE IN HANKOW. 

HANKOW, the city to which Dr. Mackenzie had 
been appointed, is a field of labour large and 
grand enough for the ambition of any man whose 
heart is fired with an intense desire to proclaim the 
glad news of salvation to large numbers of his fellow- 
men. This great mart, with the adjoining cities of 
Wuchang and Hanyang, is known in the language 
of the Flowery Land as the " Heart of the Empire." 
It is situated in the middle of the central province 
of Hupeh, at the point where the two great rivers, 
the Yang-tse and the Han, unite. Hankow is the 
great commercial city of Central China, and the 
export tea trade is above the enormous figure of 
three million pounds sterling a year. 

The channel of the two rivers is at this point 
usually covered by a perfect forest of masts, the 
number of vessels of all sizes being estimated at from 
eight to ten thousand. The Yang-tse is here more 
than a mile in breadth, and deep enough at the 
summer season to allow of the passage of the largest 
vessels of war and steamers of all trading companies. 

The commencement of mission work in Hankow 



40 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

dates from the year 1861, when the port was opened for 
foreign trade, and the Rev. Griffith John, with his col- 
league, the Rev. R. Wilson, settled with their families 
in two Chinese houses, and commenced the daily 
work of tract distribution and preaching, both on the 
streets and within the walls of their homes. Towards 
the end of 1866 it was decided to commence medical 
work in connection with the Mission. An hospital 
and dispensary were erected, and the lame, the blind, 
and those who were stricken with various diseases 
which the medical skill of Chinese doctors could not 
heal, came in crowds to the foreign physician. 

This hospital was successively under the care of 
Drs. Reid and Shearer. As time went on, however, 
the accommodation provided was found to be insuffi- 
cient, and the situation was by no means healthful. 

Anxious that the medical work should be removed 
to a more suitable neighbourhood, Dr. Reid, the 
physician in attendance upon the Hankow foreign 
community, who had given his services gratuitously 
to the Society from the beginning, purchased and 
presented to the Mission a new site. A subscription 
list was circulated among the native and foreign 
merchants, which realized about 3,000 taels in three 
weeks, and this being supplemented by a gift from 
the Directors, the missionaries were able to erect a 
large and commodious building in a good locality, 
thus placing the medical work in the midst of far 
more favourable surroundings than it had hitherto 
enjoyed. 



LIFE IN HANKOW. 41 

The foreign community had from the first generously 
supported the institution, and were quite willing to 
defray the yearly working expenses. At this time 
two young native students were assisting Dr. Reid, 
and there was a good prospect of many more offering 
themselves for such service upon the arrival of a 
medical missionary. 

Such was the field of labour to which Dr. Mackenzie 
had been appointed ; and a grand opening it seemed 
for one desirous of consecrating his medical skill to 
the Lord's service. 

The young doctor reached Hankow in the middle 
of June, a very trying time to commence the process 
of acclimatization. With his usual energy, however, 
he set to work to get his future residence ready for 
occupation, being in the meantime the guest of his 
friend Mr. John. It was arranged that he should 
share a house with his colleague Mr. Foster, the 
latter taking the lower story and Dr. Mackenzie the 
upper ; and a few days found him in possession of his 
rooms, which he soon furnished in a way that was 
sufficient for his immediate needs. 

His first Sunday morning in Hankow was spent at 
the Chinese service held at the city chapel, three 
miles from the settlement, while in the afternoon he 
boarded two of the steamers which at that season 
of the year always come up to Hankow for tea. 
" Went on board the Cawdor Castle and Craigforth" 
he writes, " and spoke to the men, inviting them to 
come to meetings on shore. I gave the address in 



42 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

the evening at the meeting held at Mr. John's house, 
and was much helped." 

It should be said in explanation, that although 
there is an English church in Hankow, service is only 
conducted there once a day ; but for many years pre- 
vious to this date an evening service had been held 
in Mr. Griffith John's house, which was attended by 
other missionaries, a few people from the community, 
and a large number of sailors when the tea-steamers 
were in port. 

Monday morning, the beginning of his first whole 
week in Hankow, found Dr. Mackenzie already in 
harness, commencing not only the study of Chinese, 
but regular attendance at the hospital in conjunction 
with his friend Dr. Reid. While the morning was 
occupied in medical work, the doctor's teacher made 
his appearance at 2 p.m., and the study of Chinese 
commenced. 

" I had my first lesson in Chinese this afternoon," 
he writes. " My teacher, Yang by name, is a very 
happy, light-hearted fellow, a Christian. I like him 
exceedingly. He assists Dr. Reid in the hospital, so 
that we are brother medicals. He teaches me thus : 
we sit down together with the same book, he calls 
over a word, and I try to imitate him ; my mouth is 
forced into all sorts of odd shapes, and I struggle on. 
The idea is first to get the proper sound, the meaning 
afterwards, and then (probably the most difficult) to 
learn the characters. We go on for about three hours, 
until I am tired of repeating sounds after him. 



life in bankow. 43 

"The hospital is a fine, substantially-built, roomy- 
building, very well ventilated and arranged. On the 
ground floor at the back is the chapel, seating about 
two hundred and fifty people ; here there is preaching 
every morning to patients and to any others who 
may drop in from the streets. In front of the chapel 
is the dispensary and consulting-room, where the 
patients are seen, a vestry for the missionaries, and 
a room in which the resident assistant lives. On the 
upper story are two large wards, two small ones, and 
a good-sized ward for foreigners ; the naval surgeon 
sends his worst cases here. Outside the general 
building is a women's ward, and two other small 
buildings, used as schoolrooms, with the porter's 
lodge. 

" Trees are planted all round the building, so that 
it has quite a pleasant appearance. The reason we 
have a foreign ward in connection with the hospital 
is that the community who subscribed a portion of 
the money to build it stipulated that this should be 
the case." 

Besides his colleagues of the London Mission, Dr, 
Mackenzie soon sought the friendship of the members 
of other missions carrying on work in Hankow and 
the adjoining cities. At this time three other missions 
were represented there, the English Wesleyans and 
American Episcopalians having workers both in 
Hankow and Wuchang, while the China Inland 
Mission had just secured premises in Wuchang. 
Dr. Mackenzie describes, with the observant eye 



44 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

of a new arrival in a strange land, his walk of 
three miles through the native city on his way to 
visit Mr. and Mrs. Scarborough of the Wesleyan 
Mission. 

" It is indeed surprising to see a Chinese city," he 
writes ; " the streets are so narrow that no such thing 
as a carriage or cart could possibly get through. In 
some of the medium-sized streets I could almost 
touch both sides by stretching out my arms, and in 
the widest of the Hankow streets not more than four 
or five people could stand abreast. Yet these narrow 
streets are alive with people all day long ; all heavy 
goods are carried through on wheelbarrows, or on 
coolies' shoulders. By the aid of a bamboo pole one 
coolie will carry a tremendous weight, balancing it on 
his shoulder with the weights suspended at each end 
of the pole. They carry buckets of water from the 
river in this fashion. The richer people are carried in 
sedan chairs, and every one has to make way for 
them. You will therefore believe me when I say that 
locomotion through a Chinese street is a somewhat 
difficult matter. The shops have no windows, but 
expose their wares directly to the public gaze. For 
protection from thieves every shop-owner keeps a dog. 
The Chinese dogs are mostly the size of a large 
retriever ; they are extremely ugly and savage, but 
very cowardly. One cannot go about without a stick, 
for they always recognise a foreigner, and set up a 
savage howl ; if you have a stick in your hands, how- 
ever, they take care to keep at a respectable distance , 



LIFE IN HANKOW. 45 

without this they will attack you. To-day I saw a 
man professing to extract worms from another man's 
teeth to cure toothache." 

We have seen that for many years past, even before 
he commenced his medical studies, Dr. Mackenzie's 
heart had been filled with an earnest longing to 
preach the gospel to those who had never heard it, 
and until the end of his life the same zeal for the 
spiritual welfare of his patients and all with whom 
he came in contact ever distinguished him. 

It was natural, therefore, that he should take a 
deep interest in the evangelistic work of the Mission, 
and in the infant Church gathered in the midst of a 
great heathen city. 

" The first Sunday of this month," he writes, " I 
saw the Communion Service for the first time in 
a Chinese church. There were present from one 
hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty men 
and women, many of whom had come from miles 
around. It was a very interesting service, so very 
simple and yet so solemn. There are between three 
hundred and four hundred members in the London 
Mission Church here, though it is impossible to get 
them all together at any one-time." 

With regard to his own special work of healing the 
sick, although large numbers of patients attended at 
the dispensary, many of them being long-standing 
chronic cases, and others beyond the reach of medical 
aid, Dr. Mackenzie found a considerable amount of 
prejudice and distrust of medicine in quarters where 



46 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

one would have imagined he would have been least 
likely to meet with it. 

Writing to his brother he says : " You have pro- 
bably heard something of the tremendous prejudice 
which the Chinese have to everything which is foreign. 
A marked instance of this occurred soon after I 
arrived. One of the deacons of the native Church, 
a very good devoted Christian, was taken ill ; he got 
worse, and then Mr. John told him that a new doctor 
had come out from England, who would probably 
come and see him if sent for. At the same time he 
asked me if I would go. Of course I was very will- 
ing, but the man would not send for me, and told 
Mr. John that they had doctors and remedies of their 
own. He is a very intelligent man, an earnest Chris- 
tian, and one very often meeting with foreigners. For 
twenty days he was very ill, getting worse and worse, 
during which time he had five Chinese doctors. One 
afternoon I had a note from Mr. John, written at this 
man's house, asking me to* come down, as the people 
had consented to my seeing him. Mr. John was very 
anxious about him, for the man was a very useful 
Christian, and could very badly be spared. I went 
down at once, and found the man dying ; they had 
only sent for me when they thought all hope was 
gone. He was in a burning fever, with a temperature 
of 1 03 , with a very rapid pulse, and dreadfully 
emaciated ; for he had only taken rice-water for 
twenty days, and consequently his weakness was 
extreme. I saw that he could not live long unless 



LIFE IN HANKOW. 47 

the fever was stopped, as he had no strength ; and 
believing that malaria was at the bottom of it, I 
determined to give him a large dose, twenty grains, of 
quinine straight off. The only objection was that if it 
failed they would say that I had hastened his death, 
so Mr. John told me. However, I did what was right, 
and gave him the dose, but I was not allowed to give 
him food. In the evening they sent to say he was 
much worse. I went down, and found the small 
room crammed with friends, waiting to see him die, 
while his own family were pulling him about, thinking 
to prevent his going ofT. The man was delirious 
from the quinine. I turned all the people out except 
his wife and son, and managed, after very great per- 
suasion from Mr. John, to get them to leave him alone. 
Before we left he had fallen off into a sound sleep. In 
the morning, on our way to the house, we met his son 
coming to tell us that he had slept all night. We 
found him dreadfully weak, but without a trace of 
fever ; still his weakness was very dangerous yet ; 
his friends were willing now to give him anything I 
ordered, and so we poured in milk and eggs, beef tea 
and quinine. Now he is able to walk about his room 
and enjoy his rice again. This case has done me 
good, for it has given the natives confidence. Since 
the man's recovery his wife has been taken ill, and 
they at once sent for me ; she is now all right again. 
I have also attended the child of a relative who was 
very ill. But the Chinese will only come to us when 
other help is of no avail." 



48 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Dr. Mackenzie had arrived in Hankow at the com- 
mencement of the rainy season, when day by day the 
heat was increasing. It was the time of the annual 
rising of the river, when the current of the noble 
stream, always strong, increased exceedingly. This 
year the river banks were completely obliterated, and 
boats were plying along the streets for hire, that 
being the only means of locomotion. The frail mud 
houses of the poorer classes of the Chinese were 
carried away by the raging current, and the whole 
of the foreign settlement was from two to six feet 
under water. 

This rising of the waters commences usually about 
the month of June, and reaches its maximum height 
in August, after which it again subsides. Though the 
rising of the water is an annual occurrence, the river 
does not invariably overflow its banks, but the year 
1875 was distinguished as a flood year. 

The churchyard and the approaches to the church 
in the foreign settlement were completely covered ; 
men were able to swim over the cricket-ground and 
to go to the bar of the club in a boat. The curious 
sight of the tops of trees and the roofs of native huts 
just visible above the water was to be seen on all 
sides. At this season malarial fever is always pre- 
valent, and it was not wonderful that Dr. Mackenzie 
thus early in his Chinese career should be attacked 
by it. 

Languor and headache he frequently experienced, 
but he kept hard at work with his Chinese studies, 



LIFE IN HANKOW. 49 

and his interest in the sailors of the tea-steamers 
never abated. From frequent short entries in his diary 
we find that this work among his fellow-countrymen 
was blessed of God, and his heart was gladdened by 
seeing many of the men coming out on the Lord's 
side. The wife of his senior colleague, Mrs. Griffith 
John, had for many years been earnestly engaged in 
work among sailors, and she found in Dr. Mackenzie 
a fellow-worker after her own heart. 

Upon arriving in China it is often a great trial to 
the young missionary to feel how complete is the 
barrier formed by his ignorance of the language, 
between himself and the people to whom he longs 
to proclaim the glad news of salvation through a 
living Saviour. It is then that opportunities of work 
among his own countrymen become indeed a means 
of grace to the messenger as well as' to many to whom 
the message is carried. 

This was evidently the case with him of whom we 
write. When he saw the power of Christ manifested 
in transforming the lives of some of the men who 
were the objects of his earnest prayers, he was con- 
scious of a more intense longing than ever before for 
likeness to His Divine Master, for victory over sin, 
and a more abiding sense of Christ's presence with 
and in him. 

" We had a delightful meeting on board the steamer 
last night," he writes. " The captain invited us to 
tea, which we had on deck. It was a very solemn 
meeting, full of God's Spirit. The captain spoke at 

4 



5o JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

the close, and said that for many years he had been 
a Christian, but had never before felt so much that 
he was a sinner. The second and third officers both 
appear happy in Christ." In another steamer he 
speaks of about fourteen men having found rest in 
Jesus. " This is the last tea-ship of the season ; may 
it be the most blessed ! " 

" I have been thinking and praying about a more 
complete trust in Jesus," he continues. " I am weary 
with struggling against temptation, and feel very many 
failures are caused by my trying to do these things 
with God." u I am rejoicing in full trust in Jesus," he 
writes some days later. " I have placed myself and 
all my concerns in His hands, looking to Him for 
deliverance from temptations. I have been so happy 
to-day in simply looking up. May my faith fail not ! 
I feel so helpless and weak, and yet so safe. The life 
of simple trust in Jesus is so delightful, such perfect 
safety ! " 

At about this time the Doctor commenced seeing 
patients in the afternoon, since in this way he was 
able to devote the whole of the mornings to Chinese 
study, and he had already begun to feel that the task 
of mastering so difficult a language was no child's 
play, but required the whole of one's energies to be 
thrown into it. 

Missionary critics are often found spending their 
time and strength in knocking down " men of straw," 
and one oft-repeated objection to missionary work is 
the divided front that workers sent out from various 



LIFE IN HANKOW. 51 

denominations must present to the bewildered eyes 
of the Chinaman inclined to become a convert from 
heathenism. A more correct knowledge of mission- 
ary life would soon prove this objection to be only 
imaginary. Nearly all missionary stations have their 
monthly prayer-meeting, at which workers of every 
Society represented in the place meet together to 
plead for blessing upon their work. And as a matter 
of fact denominational barriers are almost unknown 
in China, the missionaries being careful to teach 
their converts that we are all one in Christ Jesus. 
Dr. Mackenzie notes with evident pleasure his early 
experiences of one of these united prayer-meetings. 
" Had a most delightful meeting of missionaries in 
Mr. Scarborough's house. The subject of a fuller 
trust in Christ for missionaries and converts was 
brought up. The Lord's presence was very manifest. 
I am sure we all felt it was good to be there. The 
spirit of union is very sweet. The Wesleyans, the 
American Episcopals (most of them), Inland Mission, 
and London Mission all join in perfect love." 

" I am thankful to God for deliverance from many 
of my old besetting sins, which when I fought against 
them had such power over me," he writes soon after. 
" I never had so much deliverance from sin as I 
am experiencing now, because I am taking God at 
His word more. Yet I want complete deliverance, 
which I believe Christ can give, for even now do 
pride and irritability rise up, yet not as they once 
did." 



52 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

August is usually the most trying month of the 
summer season in Hankow, the weather being always 
close, and the heat oppressive. Patients began to 
attend at the hospital in larger numbers than ever 
before. The Chinese spoke of it as being one of the 
worst summers they had ever known, and natives 
were dying in large numbers. As is always the case 
in years of flood, malarial fever was very prevalent. 

We have already seen that Dr. Mackenzie had 
suffered slightly from the effects of malaria at in- 
tervals since his arrival in Hankow. Towards the 
middle of August he had a more severe attack, and 
though he struggled on with his work for a day or 
two, still seeing patients at the hospital, he had at 
last to give up entirely. There was no break in the 
fever for a fortnight, though he was taking heavy 
doses of quinine twice a day. It was evident that a 
change from the malarious atmosphere of Hankow 
had become an absolute necessity. It was accord- 
ingly arranged that Mackenzie should take a trip 
to Kiukiang, a port about one hundred and fifty 
miles below Hankow, a few miles distant from the 
slopes of the fine range of the Lu-Shan. The foreign 
community of Kiukiang had erected a small bunga- 
low far up among the mountain gorges, as a refuge 
from the heat of the plains. It consisted of two 
rooms only, the servants of visitors finding accom- 
modation in the priests' quarters of the adjoining 
temple of the Dragon King. 

It was a delightful change for the invalid from 



LIFE IN HANKOW. S3 



the flooded Hankow plain, to be carried by coolies, 
in a mountain chair, through a lovely wooded country, 
past well-cultivated fields and smiling villages, till he 
reached the steep path leading up to the gorge in 
which the bungalow was situated. " At one part of 
the journey," he writes, " I found myself partially 
suspended over a precipice as we were turning a 
point where the path narrowed very much and was 
very rugged. However, I sat very still, trusting in 
the surefootedness of the bearers ; but the sensation 
of relief was considerable when the path became 
broader." The bungalow is situated in the depths 
of a deep gorge running between lofty peaks. A 
fine stream of water, clear as crystal, with great lichen- 
covered boulders cast at intervals into its depths, 
breaks up the stream into little cascades and water- 
falls, forming a scene as refreshing to the eye as the 
air is invigorating and healthful to the body. 

After a few days spent in this bracing atmosphere 
Dr. Mackenzie felt much stronger, though the fever 
still hung about him. He decided to return home, 
and left Kiukiang, starting with the dawn to avoid 
the great heat of the midday sun. 

September had now arrived, and autumn, that most 
welcome of all seasons in the Yang-tse valley, was at 
hand. The cool refreshing breezes are as welcome 
as the breath of spring in more temperate latitudes. 
The flowers in the garden borders begin to revive 
after the fierce heat of the long summer days, and 
life and health come gradually back to many a frame 



54 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

weakened with the close heat of the almost tropical 
summer. 

Dr. Mackenzie was able to resume his fortnightly 
letters home ; he had not written for some weeks, for 
with his usual thoughtfulness he says : — 

" I could not write steadily while the fever was 
upon me, and did not like to frighten them at home. 
I am decidedly better, and quite free from fever, 
though my strength has not quite come back. I 
took charge of the hospital again to-day, and found 
very few patients. My absence has diminished the 
number greatly, and practically almost stopped the 
work. Dr. Reid has been in charge, but his time is 
so much occupied that he has been unable to give 
much attention to it." 

On the great day of the autumn festival, when all 
business is suspended, and even the sick put off 
attendance at the hospital to a more convenient 
season, Dr. Mackenzie accompanied his colleague 
Mr. John up to the city chapel, and was much in- 
terested in the congregation which quickly assembled 
when the doors were opened. Daily preaching is 
carried on in most of the Mission chapels in China. 
Very frequently a shop in the middle of a crowded 
street is rented, and fitted up with benches as a " Glad 
Tidings Hall," where the foreign missionary and his 
native assistant for many hours every day proclaim 
the way of salvation through Jesus to those who 
come into the building. No regular service is held, 
but as the coolies resting from their burdens, the 



LIFE IN HANKOW. 55 

countryman with his basket by his side, or the pedlar 
with his case of cord and tapes, come in for a while, 
the preacher, in colloquial fashion, addresses questions 
to individuals, and tries by patient repetition to im- 
plant in his hearers' minds some ideas about the love 
of God as manifested in His Son Jesus Christ. This 
new "doctrine," as 'they call it, is very novel, and 
strangely unlike anything the hearers have ever 
listened to before. It is with great difficulty that 
they grasp any thoughts relating to the unseen and 
eternal. The same persons will frequently come day 
after day to the chapel, and in some cases the 
missionary's heart is cheered by seeing a genuine 
interest in the gospel aroused in hearts before dark 
and without knowledge of God. 

" Mr. John spoke in the chapel for about two hours," 
writes the Doctor. "It was half-an-hour before he 
could get one idea thoroughly home to the people, 
showing, it seems to me, how useless are ordinary 
sermons to teach these people. Wandering through 
the country and simply preaching is pure waste of 
time, I think. Men must settle down to patient per- 
severing work, and if accompanied by the Spirit of 
God, one may expect to see great results from it. 

" Mr. John has anxious enquirers at the end of these 
patient, hard-working services, which greatly cheer his 
heart. To-day there were four. One old man, who 
was present for the first time, as most of the hearers 
were, was very anxious, and although rather sceptical 
upon entering the chapel, was at the close of the 



56 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

preaching eagerly desirous of obtaining more know- 
ledge of this Jesus who could deliver from sin. His 
chief difficulty was that he wanted to do something ; 
he could not for a long time realize that salvation is 
a gift. Afterwards Mr. John prayed with him in the 
vestry." 

A few days later Dr. Mackenzie took a day's holi- 
day in order to pay a visit to Wuchang, the provincial 
capital of Hupeh, and the seat of the Viceroy of 
the two provinces known as Hu-kwang. This city 
is prettily situated, and possesses some attractive 
features ; it is surrounded by a wall of about nine 
miles in circumference, built in parts upon the slopes 
of a hill. 

It had only been after a prolonged struggle and 
great opposition that the consent of the officials had 
been obtained to the commencement of mission-work 
in this city. Examinations are regularly held in 
Wuchang, which is a great literary centre, and the 
officials had argued that it would never do for 
students coming up from all parts of the provinces to 
find the despised Western teachers of the religion of 
Jesus spreading their pernicious doctrines in the capital 
itself. Not many years before, a determined attempt 
had been made to drive the Roman Catholic priests 
from the spot, and by order of the Viceroy two of 
their number had been strangled. Their graves, 
among the rank grass, on a lonely hill side without 
the city wall, are to be seen still. It was not wonder- 
ful that Chinese diplomacy had made a determined 



LIFE IN HANKOW. 57 



attempt to wear out the patience of the persistent 
foreigner, but Mr. John's zeal and importunity had 
at last conquered ; the London Mission obtained a 
footing there in 1865, and since that time three other 
Societies have sent agents to labour there. 

Dr. Mackenzie describes a visit which he made to 
one of the sights of the place, known as the Temple 
of Horrors or of Hades. 

It is situated without the wall of the city. In 
the chambers surrounding the central hall a large 
number of groups are exhibited, representing people 
being judged after death, and rewarded for their 
virtues or punished for their misdeeds. The figures 
are mostly of plaster, but the scenes are depicted 
with considerable skill, and are hideous in the 
extreme. Here a man is seen thrown on a hill of 
knives, there he is sawn asunder, tied to a pillar 
heated red hot, or pounded in a mortar. After 
passing through these or similar frightful experiences, 
before a man is born into the world again he is 
represented as drinking of the tea of forgetfulness, 
which is sold by two old women, whose stall is 
erected close by the gates of Hades. 

As the days went on, Dr. Mackenzie's hospital 
work occupied more and more of his time, the 
patients who attended at the dispensary rapidly in- 
creasing in numbers. " I have been very busy, 
hardly able to touch Chinese study for the last few 
days, with so many hospital patients," he writes in 
November. " I have sought ever since coming here 



58 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

to keep the work quiet, simply to keep it going by- 
seeing those who present themselves, but making it 
as little known as possible, that I may get the chief 
part of the day for the language. But I find the 
hospital is growing popular rather too soon. The 
family of a farmer, coming from a town called Mien- 
yang, one hundred miles distant, has just arrived 
here. The two daughters, fine handsome girls of 
fourteen and sixteen, were brought here just before 
my arrival ; they had cataract in both eyes from 
birth, and had never seen. We operated upon them ; 
both cases were successful, and the girls can now see 
well. They are very intelligent, and became deeply 
interested in the truth. Before they returned home 
Mr. John baptized them both. On this second visit 
they came bringing with them their mother, a woman 
of about forty years of age, who had also been blind 
for twenty-six years ; there was another middle-aged 
relative with them who had been unable to see for 
fifteen years ; and a large party of neighbours accom- 
panied them suffering from various ailments. The 
daughters said, though they thought their mother's 
eyes were affected in the same way as their own had 
been, they feared since she had been blind for so 
many years she was past all hope of cure. They had, 
however, been teaching her all they had learned of 
the religion of Jesus, and she had come with them 
to be further instructed in the truth, as she wished 
to become a Christian also. I operated to-day upon 
the four cataract cases, and removed a disorganised 



LIFE IN HANKOW. 59 

eye, which was leading to the destruction of the other, 
in the. case of a lad who accompanied this party ; 
all the cases look well so far." A fortnight after he 
writes : " To-day I removed the bandages from the 
eyes of the woman operated upon for cataract. She 
could tell me I have whiskers, — a strange thing to the 
Chinese, — and that I wore glasses. Her companion 
is getting on well, but will require further operative 
treatment. Of late I have been besieged with cases 
of eye disease. This woman, her husband, a man 
of considerable character, and their youngest child, 
were baptized upon a profession of their faith on the 
last Sunday of 1875." Writing to a friend of this 
case, Dr. Mackenzie mentions the woman's gratitude 
for the relief experienced, and remarks : " The other 
day she prayed that the blessing of God, the one 
true God of whom she had learned, might rest upon 
me for what I had done for her." 

At about this time Dr. Mackenzie mentions the 
case of a literary man who brought a little girl of 
about twelve years of age to the hospital in charge 
of two women. " They had come a journey of twenty 
miles. The girl had a hare lip, which greatly deformed 
her otherwise nice-looking face. I operated, and, three 
days ago, healing being nearly completed, she went 
away with quite a new lip. The father when thanking 
me went down on his hands and knees, and knocked 
his forehead against the floor at my feet, which is 
their way of expressing very deep homage ; of course 
I had him instantly lifted up, and bade my teacher 



6q JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

tell him that Christianity taught us to kneel only 
to God. This man belonged to the literary class, of 
whose pride one hears so much. He takes away with 
him a very complete knowledge of the truth, and 
there we must leave him with God. 

" At first there was a great prejudice against foreign 
medicine on the part of the Christians living in 
Hankow, but seeing I have successfully attended the 
chief deacon of the Hankow Church they all come 
to me now. This I am very thankful for, as my great 
aim is to make the hospital a means of proclaiming 
the gospel, and reaching the hearts of the people 
through kindness and whatever benefit medically one 
can give them." 

It was at about this time that a wonderful wave 
of blessing reached the Hankow Church. It touched 
first the missionaries of the various Societies labouring 
there, and a revival of spiritual life was seen in their 
midst. 

A meeting for the promotion of holiness among 
the missionaries here was held at Mr. John's. " Great 
blessing received by all present," is an entry in Dr. 
Mackenzie's diary. There was quite a revival also 
among the native Christians. " We had a very 
delightful meeting at the Chinese morning service 
to-day. Wei's son and nephew were both received 
into the Church, also two others. A pedlar of the name 
of Le spoke, exhorting to more courage in Christ's 
cause, since we know that we have the Holy Spirit 
with us. We ought to imitate the best Christians in 



LIFE IN HANKOW. 61 

our midst, and not the poor ones. Koh spoke very 
earnestly. He is an assistant in a hong, but manages 
to give up an hour or more nearly every day to 
preaching. Yang, my hospital assistant, spoke after- 
wards. He referred to the return of the girls who were 
formerly blind, spoke of the coming again from their 
home at Mien-yang, bringing with them many others 
who were suffering in the same way. He used this as 
an illustration of how we, having received the Light 
of life, should bring others within its reach. 

" He mentioned also the case of the boy who had 
come with the same party, with one eye disorganized 
and the other failing. I advised and removed the 
diseased eye, and Yang showed from this that if we 
have a right eye or right hand which is injuring us, 
we should, as Christ commanded, cut it off and cast 
it from us. The Lord's presence was indeed with 
us in the meeting. Oh to be privileged to join in 
such a work \ " 



CHAPTER IV. 
COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 



Work among the Villages — "All the Sick People in the 
Place " — A Kind Reception — Leprosy — Learning More of 
Christ — New Year's Day in China — Selling Books — The 
Cloth-dealer of Hiau-kan — Thirteen brought to Christ — 
A Night in a Chinese Boat — A Good Escort — Gathering 
Crowds — An Attack — "Go back to Hankow and Preach 
your Jesus there ! " — Bravery of the Christians — " I was a 
Stranger and ye took Me in " — A Former Patient to the 
Rescue — A Chinese Feast — "You can never hurt my 
Soul"— A Bad Road. 



CHAPTER IV. 

COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 

IT is not unfrequently found in China that work 
among the villages and in the country districts is 
far more fruitful in results than is usually the case in 
cities. The country people are more simple-minded, 
and though generally ignorant are perhaps for that 
very reason more accessible and teachable than those 
whose lives are passed in the thickly-populated towns. 

Mr. John, who had long felt a strong desire to reach 
the people living in the villages surrounding Hankow, 
was anxious to secure the co-operation of his young 
medical colleague, and frequent visits began to be 
paid at this time to hamlets within walking distance 
of the port. 

We find some record of these visits in the Doctor's 
diary. " On Thursday last Mr. John and I took 
breakfast at 7 a.m., and, together with our native 
assistant, Siau, carrying a small bag containing a few 
medicines and our luncheon, started for some of the 
villages in the neighbourhood of Hankow. It was 
a beautiful day, and we had a nice walk, visiting all 
together four villages. When we enter a place we go 

5 



66 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

to the tea-shop, and sit down. Mr. John then begins 
to talk to the people ; all the inhabitants soon assemble 
to see the foreigners, filling the tea-shop and crowding 
around the doors. When he has finished speaking, he 
tells them that I am a doctor ; whereupon they rush 
off, and soon bring out all the sick people in the place. 
Eye disease is terribly prevalent, almost every sixth 
person having some variety of ophthalmia. At one 
village we held our gathering and treated our patients 
in the open air. We went into some of the houses, 
at the request of the people, to see very bad cases. 
We walked about fifteen miles, and then came back 
by boat down the Han river." 

A few days after this the Doctor, in company with 
Mr. John, went to eight small villages on the plain 
outside one of the gates. Though within five miles 
of the city, they found no foreigners had as yet 
visited them. 

On another occasion, news of their coming having 
preceded them, the missionaries found a barn had 
been prepared for their reception, chairs and tables 
having been placed there, and tea and eggs got ready 
for their refreshment. In this place they preached, 
and saw many patients. They also paid a visit to 
three more villages on the banks of the Yang-tse, 
where they found all the inhabitants were vegetarians. 
These Chinese vegetarians belong to the strictest sect 
of the Buddhists, and the idea which prompts their 
asceticism of diet is the hope of winning the favour of 
their deities. 



COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 67 



Writing to friends at home of these visits Dr. 
Mackenzie says : — 

" We were everywhere well received, and our 
medicines eagerly sought after. The greatest diffi- 
culty is the terrible indifference of the people to the 
Gospel ; they trouble their heads very little about 
any form of worship, most of them simply doing 
homage to heaven and earth. They seemed to me 
wanting in sympathy for their sick friends. Yet of 
course God, by His Spirit, can teach the most indiffer- 
ent, and we have had much joy in seeing already 
some signs of interest. 

" We always, after our visits, find patients coming to 
the hospital whom we have met in their homes, and in 
this way we can follow up the teaching. On Sunday 
two men were present at the chapel from the village 
we visited a fortnight ago ; both are anxious to become 
Christians. 

" I am now treating two Chinese ladies, one of 
whom is the wife of an assistant of the Taoutaidel, or 
chief magistrate of Hankow. I have plenty of oppor- 
tunities of studying disease in my hospital. Leprosy 
one gets interested in out here from never, or rarely, 
seeing it at home, though I am afraid I shall not 
benefit posterity by discovering a cure. I get some 
practice in the use of the knife too. To-day I took 
away a tumour the size of a large orange, growing 
from the inner surface of the lower lip of a boy of 
eight years of age. I have just done a satisfactory 
operation on the eye, giving a man who had been 



68 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

suffering years of pain and bad sight, freedom from 
suffering and quite new vision. To-day I find he has 
got an attack of inflammation of the lungs. I do 
hope he will get well of this, as he is very greatly 
interested in the Gospel, and a nice fellow." 

Writing to his father, after receiving news of his 
illness, the Doctor says : — 

" Probably very few of us realize even some 
approach to the true value, of Christ's salvation until 
sickness comes upon us, or some other form of 
trial. But then, when we are trusting in Jesus, we 
realize in some measure what a privilege it is when 
we find how great a stay and support He is to us, and 
how pain and sorrow can be borne with the arms of 
our Saviour around us. And yet how ill we requite 
His love, by turning away from Him oftentimes, and 
getting cold, and unfaithful, and weak, and miserable 
Christians, when, if we but put our entire trust in Him, 
we should be bright and strong. 

" I find how these things are true of myself; for my 
Christian character at home was very unlovely and 
miserable, and undeserving the name of Christian, 
seeing that a Christian is a follower of Christ, and 
should be in some measure like Him. But out here, 
where I am thrown much alone, I get to know, I am 
thankful to say, more of Christ as a personal Saviour ; 
and at this present moment, though far away from 
you all whom I love so much, I never knew what it 
was to have more joy and real peace than I have at 
present. What a joy it is to know that you have 



COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 69 

such a stay as Christ always proves to be when we 
lean on Him, and that all of us, in our anxieties, have 
the sympathizing Jesus to go to ! " 

In another letter he gives his first experiences of 
the great festive time of China — the New Year's 
holiday, and especially New Year's Day. 

" The Chinese New Year has just commenced, so 
all trade is in consequence suspended. Everything 
is so quiet in the streets that it resembles a Sunday 
at home. The beginning of the year is the only 
holiday, you may say, the Chinaman ever gets, so 
that he looks forward to it with much eagerness. It 
is the time for family re-unions, and every one tries 
to get home if it is possible. Wednesday was New 
Year's Day, but on Monday most of the shops began 
to close, and people were making their way home. 
On Tuesday night nearly every Chinaman sat up to 
receive the New Year. They let off crackers in great 
quantities all night long, and feast and enjoy themselves. 

" Most of the New Year's calls are made on the 
second day of the year, though many visit on the first 
of the month. 

" On Wednesday we all went to call on Mr. Shun, 
our chief native preacher, a scholar who came to 
Hankow with Mr. John at the beginning of the 
Mission. We all esteem him very highly, he is such 
a fine Christian character. 

" In going along the streets covered with snow we 
met a few of the early callers, wearing long robes of 
silk, with their red visiting cards in their hands. 



70 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

" Mr. Shun was in bed when we arrived at his house, 
having been up very late holding a watch-night meet- 
ing for some of the Christians in his own home. 
However, we waited until he came down, and sat 
round the table, and nibbled our cakes and drank 
our tea. Most of the Christians whom I know per- 
sonally called on me on the second or third day. I 
find I am beginning to be able to talk to them a little. 
Messrs. John and Bryant have been preaching on the 
streets during this holiday season, for many of the 
people that are shut up in shops at other times are 
about now. I only found out they were thus occupied 
on Thursday, when, after working all the morning at 
Chinese, I began to miss, after tiffin, the change of 
employment which my hospital practice gives me, 
for it was shut up for the New Year. I called on 
Mr. Bryant, with the object of getting his company 
for a walk, and found him just ready to go to the 
streets to preach with Mr. John. So I went with 
them, and sold many books ; but as the people would 
ask me questions, I found I had to talk also. On 
Friday I went out again, but got separated from the 
others ; but I managed to get on fairly well, and sold 
fifty books containing the Gospels explained. On 
Saturday I began to preach more publicly, having 
arranged a little address, which had been written for 
me previously by my teacher, though I did not think 
I should have commenced using it so soon." 

It will thus be seen that from Dr. Mackenzie's 
first arrival in China his one aim was not merely to 



COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 71 

exercise his healing art upon the bodies of his patients, 
but to bring them to the knowledge of that Saviour 
who was such a living reality to himself. 

It was for this reason he felt it of such great 
importance that he should use every effort to obtain a 
thorough working knowledge of the language of the 
people. To its study he devoted himself most faith- 
fully, and in a very short time made considerable 
progress in its acquisition. " Being actively engaged 
in hospital work, of which I am very fond, has kept 
me from wearying in studying Chinese," he writes to 
his mother. " In consequence, after six months in the 
country, I am reading in turn with the Chinese at 
prayers in the chapel ; this I can only do when they 
are reading in the Gospels, as I have not commenced 
the Epistles yet. From the first I was determined to 
learn Chinese. There is no work so useful as that of 
the medical missionary, but he must combine the two 
elements, otherwise medical missions are little more 
than benevolent institutions, like hospitals at home." 

During the Chinese New Year's holidays it had 
been arranged that Mr. John, with Dr. Mackenzie, 
should pay a visit to Hiau-kan, a country district 
about forty miles from Hankow, the residence of 
about twenty Christians, who had recently been 
received into the Church. 

The principal agent used by God in the conversion 
of a great number of these people was an earnest 
Christian man of the name of Wei. He and most of 
his friends spent a part of their time in cultivating 



72 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

their fields, and occupied the spare hours with cloth- 
weaving, bringing the product of their looms at stated 
periods into Hankow for sale. 

Writing of this man, Mr. John says :— 
" Wei, though not a graduate or even an under- 
graduate in the Confucian School, is by no means 
ignorant of the Confucian classics, and will often 
quote them in a way that indicates, on his part, a 
more thorough appreciation of their meaning than 
is evinced by many of the so-called scholars. He is 
a plain, honest, straightforward-looking man, natur- 
ally endowed with a considerable amount of sound 
common sense and force of character. No sooner 
did he become a Christian than he felt that he 
must be a living, working Christian. He began at 
once to teach and exhort others, but the fruits of his 
efforts did not at once appear. We were constantly 
reminded, however, of his presence among us as a great 
power for good, and were cheered by unquestionable 
proofs of his devotion to Christ. It appeared to be 
his aim to get hold of all his Hiau-kan acquaintances 
whenever they visited Hankow, and bring them to 
me. Often has he filled my study with his friends, 
and often has my heart been cheered by the Christian 
intelligence, warmth of feeling, and earnestness of 
manner which he displays whenever he speaks. He 
is a thorough believer in the Holy Ghost, and never 
fails to dwell specially on the importance of prayer 
for the Divine influence, in order to illumine the mind 
and change the heart. Pointing to one, he will say, 



COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 73 

1 This friend has heard the truth repeatedly, and knows 
it intellectually; but he does not understand it — it 
has no meaning for him. He has not received the 
Holy Ghost' Pointing to another, he will remark, 
1 This brother, thank God, has received the Holy Ghost 
at last. I have been at him for a long time, but he 
could not see it. I could do nothing for him but 
pray. It is all clear to him now. The Holy Ghost 
has revealed it to him.' Thirteen of our converts 
have been brought to Christ by means of his prayer- 
ful efforts." 

Wei had been very earnest in his entreaties that 
Mr. John should pay a visit to his district during the 
holiday season, when all his friends were at home. 
No foreigner had previously visited the place, and 
Wei believed that the presence of the missionaries 
might be the means of arousing general interest in 
the Gospel among his heathen neighbours, as well as 
be blessed by God, to the strengthening and building 
up of believers in their holy faith. 

,c We had arranged to start for Hiau-kan on 
Monday," writes the Doctor to his mother, " but at 
the Sunday morning services were surprised to see 
Wei and his brother among the worshippers. They 
had just arrived, and told us that, having held meet- 
ings in each other's houses for the worship of God, 
they had been attacked by some of the other villagers, 
part of the house in which their service was being 
held at the time was pulled down and the furniture 
broken, while Wei himself had been struck. How- 



74 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

ever, he still wished us to pay our visit, and we saw 
no reason to alter our plans. 

" So at two o'clock on the afternoon of Monday we 
made a start, Mr. John, myself, Siau, our hospital 
preacher, Wei and his brother, with another Christian 
named Chia. We walked ten miles across the plain 
to the north of the city, till at about 6 p.m. we came 
to a creek, and hired a boat in which to travel 
through the night. This was my first experience of 
boat travelling in China, and I got it rather hot for 
the first time. It was a small boat, the worst he had 
ever slept in, Mr. John said ; but we had no choice, 
and it was the best we could get. In the centre of it 
was the cabin, if you could honour with that title the 
small space, covered over with curved bamboos, into 
which we crept, and found just room enough to sit 
up in. We covered the floor with our native bedding, 
and I had just room to lie down. We were not the 
only passengers, for we had to take in ten Chinamen, 
who all huddled themselves up into this small space. 
We had a short service before going to rest, singing 
" I am coming to the cross," which Mr. John has 
translated. I did not get very much sleep through 
the night, for the Chinese were smoking constantly, 
and the atmosphere was very impure. 

"About nine o'clock on Tuesday morning we reached 
the village, which was at the end of our water journey. 
I had crept out of our little cot to get some fresh air, 
and, while standing up on the small deck approach- 
ing our landing-place, the people caught sight of the 



COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 75 

foreigner. They began assembling along the water's 
edge, forming, by the time our boat came to a stand- 
still, a crowd of several hundred men and boys. 
They were highly amused and interested to see us 
attending to our toilet. Although the people were 
greatly excited, it seemed to be purely from curiosity, 
for they did not attempt to insult us. Mr. John 
preached from the boat to the crowd lining the shore, 
and again on landing. We did not know how to 
arrange about breakfast ; we had brought bread and 
cold meat with us, but we needed some place to eat 
it in, and some tea to drink. The crowd increased so 
fast that it was impossible for us to accompany 
our native friends into the tea-shops ; so leaving 
our companions to get a good meal and follow us, 
we proceeded, with almost the whole village at our heels. 
For a long time we had a good escort, but we were 
hoping to come across a quiet country tea-shop, where 
we could breakfast in peace. But those hopes soon 
vanished, for we found we were in the midst of 
villages wherever we went ; the country was hilly and 
undulating, and everywhere under cultivation. There 
are no hedges between the fields, but raised banks, 
and these banks form the paths, but as they are very 
narrow you can only walk in single file. It was 
evident that no Englishman had ever visited that 
neighbourhood, for as we moved along we found 
people making towards us from all directions, showing 
themselves above the hills, and quickly hastening to 
get a closer view. Some of them appeared amazed, 



j6 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

and not to know what to make of us ; yet they were 
quite quiet, only very curious. At last, in as quiet 
a place as we could get away from any village, we 
sat down, and ate our meal without water or tea. 
Yet before we were half through it we had a good 
audience. After preaching at a large village through 
which we passed, we reached, about two o'clock, a fine 
large lake, where we hired a boat to take us across to 
the village at which Wei's uncle lives. Here we were 
received very kindly by nearly all the villagers, and 
Mr. John preached for a long time. We evidently 
owed our kind treatment, however, to the influence of 
our friend, the convert Wei. His uncle, seventy-five 
years of age, and his aunt were brought out and 
introduced to us. We were surprised to see how well 
our friend was connected, his uncle and brother being 
quite important people in the village, living in good 
large houses. Mr. John preached for some time to 
the people, who listened very attentively, and Wei's 
friends were anxious that we should stay the night 
with them. 

" But the crowd which had assembled to see and 
hear us was so large that, fearing our host would be 
much inconvenienced on our account, we thought it 
better to push on. 

" We walked on from this village, with our coolie 
carrying our bedding, a distance of six li. It was 
about five o'clock. We were within two or three miles 
of Wei's home, and very tired, when we found the 
behaviour of the people begin to change. From being 



COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 77 

simply curious they began to be rude, rushing along- 
side of us in the ploughed fields, and shouting in great 
excitement. The farther we advanced the worse it 
grew ; from shouting it came to treading on one's heels, 
and pushing. We turned and faced the people several 
times, and Mr. John expostulated with the seniors in 
a way that usually has the desired effect ; but on this 
occasion they rather encouraged the boys, and were 
all evidently bent on mischief. Presently, pelting 
began ; there were fortunately no stones at hand, but 
the earth being dry, the ploughed fields were covered 
with hard clods, and these soon began to fly about 
our heads. At this stage I took off my spectacles, 
and pulled my soft felt hat well over my ears, which 
protected me a good deal. Mr. John was struck on 
the mouth with a hard lump of clay, which made the 
blood flow freely, and almost caused him to faint ; and 
soon after another piece cut his scalp at the back of 
the head. I guarded my face with my arms, my hat 
well protected my head, and I received most of the 
blows about my head and body. We still went on, 
following Wei, who walked like a prince, calm and 
fearless, with his head up, just his natural self, and 
apparently not a bit troubled. 

" A little way in front of us, in a hollow, was a creek, 
which we had to cross by means of a small plank 
bridge ; as we approached it we saw the opposite 
bank was lined with people. We stopped for a 
moment to consider whether we should go on, but 
the leaders of the attack were evidently determined 



78 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

that we should proceed, wishing to get rid of us over 
the creek, which formed the boundary of their district. 
Seeing our hesitation, they began to drag us down to 
the water's edge ; and at this time we might have 
been killed at any moment, for we were the centre of 
a howling, infuriated mob of about one thousand men 
and boys bent on mischief, and dragging us about in 
every direction. We were several times separated. 
I was pushed down once, but Mr. John and the native 
Christians kept the crowd off me. The people's con- 
duct was explained by their shouts of ' Go back to 
Hankow, and preach your Jesus there ; you shall not 
come here.' The standard of Christ had been raised 
by Wei and his friends, and the devil had consequently 
been hard at work, and hence this hatred. This was 
a very trying time, but I felt perfectly calm ; no feeling 
of anger entered my mind. Christ was a very precious 
companion then. We felt no desire to use force in 
opposing them, and we had good sticks with us ; but 
had we used them it would have been the signal for 
our instant destruction, for the mob was just ready to 
take advantage of any such action on our part. 

" When they had succeeded in dragging us down to 
the water's edge, Mr. John set his feet on the bridge, 
but as he did so the crowd on the opposite bank sent 
a great shower of missiles upon us, showing that they 
were determined that we should not cross. So, our 
native friends uniting, we made a rush backwards, and 
reaching the top of the bank, made our way across 
country, and the people did not follow us very far. 



COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 79 

"The Christians behaved nobly all through, one 
man standing in front of Mr. John, trying to ward off 
the blows. Two or three from Wei's village had 
bravely joined us, when it would really have been 
better for them to keep out of the way. We were very 
thankful to see that none of the Christians attempted 
to use force on our behalf. We walked as quickly 
as we could across country, having by this time, of 
course, forgotten our weariness ; but darkness was 
rapidly coming on, and we stopped to consult together 
as to where we should spend the night. Our bedding 
had disappeared, but it was decided to send a man back 
to seek for it, since it had probably got safe to the 
village, our coolie having gone on ahead. It was quite 
dark, and we were beginning to think we might have 
to walk all night, when Siau suddenly remembered 
that a man lived in this neighbourhood who had been 
in Hankow, and was at that time deeply interested 
in Christianity. He had been examined by Mr. John, 
but had not received baptism, as his case was thought 
to be not quite satisfactory. Siau determined to go 
on and seek out the man, while we sat down in the 
dark, for there was no moon, and prayed to our 
Father in heaven. 

" After a while we heard some footsteps approaching, 
and calling out, found that it was Siau returning with 
his friend. Would he take us in for the night ? Oh 
yes, certainly ; he was not in the least afraid. We 
followed him into the village near at hand, which was 
a large one ; but our friend was not the master of the 



So JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

house in which he lived ; that personage, however, came 
out, and gave us a hearty welcome. He also declared 
he was not afraid to take us in. So we entered, and sat 
down. The room was a large one, but it was soon 
crowded with people who had heard of our arrival. 
This was again an anxious time, for we feared our 
hosts might repent of their kindness ; but God was 
still with us, and we left the matter entirely with Him. 
After a long trial of our patience the crowd dispersed. 
Our host, meanwhile, had set about preparing supper 
for us, having already made us some tea. 

" We now had time to inquire our new friend's 
name, and found it was Hu. The village contained 
five hundred families, and, like Wei's village, was a 
clan, all having the same surname of Hu. Siau was 
about to tell him our names in return, when our host 
interrupted, saying he knew us, that he had been to 
Hankow, and was a patient in the hospital with a sore 
throat — I was the doctor there. They then brought 
in supper ; not content with an ordinary meal, they 
had prepared quite a feast, with a number of dishes — 
fowl, pork, bacon, pig's liver, fish, and rice cakes, and 
a large dish each of something like vermicelli broth. 
I thoroughly enjoyed my first Chinese meal, for we 
had not had anything to eat since morning. After 
supper, while sitting talking, we were delighted and 
surprised to find our bedding arrive ; our friends hsd 
found it, and had brought it on themselves ; they were 
accompanied by some other Christians, who had come 
along thus late in the dark to sympathise with us. 



COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 81 

We spread our bedding in an outhouse where straw 
was stowed, and then unitedly knelt down and thanked 
God for His wonderful love towards us, and prayed 
that this trial might be the means of the Truth 
spreading rapidly through these villages. 

" We enjoyed a sound night's rest, but got up at 
dawn, and soon the village was awake, and had turned 
out to see us. Many of the people wanted medicines. 
They brought one man to me on his bed, with sup- 
puration of the foot, extremely emaciated. I freely 
lanced it, and subsequently treated about fifty patients 
that morning. We had our breakfast hastily, and 
were anxious of course to recompense our host for 
the considerable trouble and expense we had put him 
to, but were surprised to find he would not take 
money ; eventually we left a dollar in the hand of a 
little child. One of the men of the house also insisted 
on carrying our baggage for us. I would not have 
believed there was so much kindness and love in the 
Chinaman's heart, at any rate where strangers are 
concerned, had I not seen it. Two or three Christians 
from neighbouring villages had arrived thus early to 
show their sympathy with us. 

" After we had bidden farewell to our kind host, 
on the way back Mr. John told me some interesting 
facts in connection with the conduct of the native 
Christians on the previous day. Siau, the hospital 
preacher, during the most critical period, when trying 
to keep the people off, had said, ' You can kill me if 
you wish, but don't kill my pastor ! ' Chia, a strongly 

6 



82 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

built man, who was formerly a constant fighter, was 
struck by one of the most prominent of our opponents. 
Upon receiving the blow he said, ' Why do you strike 
me ? You see I don't strike you back ; you curse 
me, but I don't curse you. I'll tell you what it is, 
you can hurt my body if you like, but I know this, 
you can never hurt my soul ! ' Wei was very quiet 
after the attack made upon us ; he was thinking of his 
home and family, and fearing that in their excitement 
these men would go to his village and carry on further 
evil work there ; for, as he said, c It is me they hate ! ' 
Before we had heard that his family was safe, he 
made a good remark, as he frequently does. ' Do 
you think,' he exclaimed, ' that ten thousand such 
actions as these are ever going to knock the cause of 
Jesus into nothing ? ' 

" On our homeward march we reached Peh-ching- 
tswei about one o'clock, but found it very awkward to 
hire a boat there. The people, knowing that we 
must get some means of transport down the river, 
asked exorbitant sums. 

" Finally, through the help of a respectable man who 
had heard Mr. John preach in Hankow, we secured a 
small boat and started. It rained heavily on the 
way, and when at about five o'clock we landed, it was 
still coming down in torrents, and we had thirty li 
to walk over a muddy plain. However, we each took 
a basin of hot rice, and started. I can truly say I 
never had such a walk before in my life. There is a 
narrow path of stones laid down for the barrows to 



COUNTRY WORK AND PERSECUTION. 83 

run upon in some parts of the road, and without this 
we could not have walked ; but these stones were 
covered with thick layers of mud. The fields in some 
parts were flooded, though quite dry when we passed 
two days before. Where there were not stones we 
were staggering along like drunken men, as our boots 
could get no hold on the road, covered with mud and 
slime. 

" All Chinese travellers were safely housed for the 
night in the tea-shops which we passed, but we were 
anxious to reach home as soon as possible. Tho- 
roughly soaked, we arrived at the nearest city gate 
at about eight o'clock, and found it locked. We had 
to wait a considerable time, and then succeeded in 
persuading the official in charge of the north gate to 
send soldiers to open it and admit us." 



CHAPTER V. 
LIGHT AFTER DARKNESS. 



A Dilemma — Appealing unto Caesar — A Chinese Mandarin — 
Hiau-kan Revisited— In a Chinese Yamen — A Religious 
Discussion — A Curious Crowd — "No Leisure so much as 
to Eat" — Stages Erected for the Preachers — Midnight 
Disturbers — A dinner in Foreign Style — Village 
Converts — The Good Seed Sown Broadcast — Sowing in 
Tears to Reap in Joy — A Christian Village. 



CHAPTER V. 
LIGHT AFTER DARKNESS. 

ON their return from this memorable journey to the 
Hiau-kan district, Mr. John and Dr. Mackenzie 
found themselves faced by the question of the advis- 
ability or otherwise of reporting their experiences at 
the English consulate in Hankow. They had no 
desire to have any person punished on their account ; 
the difficulty was that this persecution, having been 
commenced against the native Christians, would inevit- 
ably increase in violence if some decided steps were 
not taken to check it. 

Experience had proved that it would be useless to 
expect to obtain protection for the persecuted Chris- 
tians from the Chinese officials ; but now that the 
missionaries had suffered with them, there was a hope 
that the mandarins might be induced to issue such 
orders as would enable the Hiau-kan converts lo 
worship God in peace. 

This question of the wisdom of appealing to those 
in high places to exercise their authority in times of 
persecution, and to shield with the strong hand of the 
law those who are enduring hardness on account of 
their faith, has been much debated in many quarters. 



SS JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Of course, Chinese Christians cannot be exempt 
from the old law laid down by the Apostle, that " all 
who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer perse- 
cution ; " and undoubtedly many trials fall to their lot 
springing naturally out of their surroundings. Petty 
daily annoyances try their patience ; evil reports and 
accusations are constantly spread abroad, which can 
only be successfully met by blameless and Christ-like 
lives. 

Occasionally, however, obvious cases of persecution 
arise, totally different in character from these trivial 
vexations incident to the life of a believer in Jesus in 
a heathen land. It is then that the majority of 
missionaries maintain it is a duty to support their 
persecuted converts in an appeal for protection ; for 
these hostile attacks are usually instigated by a desire 
for the suppression of Christianity, and are not unfre- 
quently sanctioned, if not originated, by the gentry of 
the land. 

The result of such an enforcement of the treaty 
rights of native Christians is usually the quick sup- 
pression of an outbreak which might otherwise grow 
into something much more serious. 

'These were the motives which influenced Mr. John 
and his young colleague in reporting their experiences 
to the English Consul. 

Mr. Alabaster, at that time H.B.M.'s representative 
in Hankow, at once entered into the matter, but con- 
fessed to little hope that a satisfactory settlement 
would be arrived at if an appeal was made to the 



LIGHT AFTER DARKNESS. S9 

native authorities, since in several recent cases of 
insult and injury done to foreigners which had been 
brought before him, the Tau-tai had refused to take 
any notice of his appeal. 

Two days after this interview with the Consul, 
Dr. Mackenzie writes as follows : — 

"This morning I received a message from Mr. John, 
asking me to come over to his house at once. I went, 
and found the Hiau-kan hien, or head magistrate of 
the Hiau-kan district, in his library. It appears that 
the chief magistrates of surrounding districts have to 
pay their respects to the Viceroy at the beginning of 
the New Year, so that this mandarin was in Hankow 
at the very time that the Consul's letter reached the 
Tau-tai. Contrary to Mr. Alabaster's expectations, 
but in accordance with our prayers, the Tau-tai seems 
to have taken up the matter energetically, sending 
for the hien and bidding him go and settle the matter 
himself. This gentleman seems to have felt consider- 
able anxiety lest he should get into trouble over the 
affair, for he not only went to call upon the Consul, 
but, at his suggestion, came with his retinue to Mr. 
John's house, which was an act of great condescension. 

" This mandarin is a fine specimen of a ruler ; he is 
about six feet four inches in height, and stout, so that 
in his long silk robes he looked a giant by the side 
of Mr. John and myself. He had a great amount of 
energy, and his voice could be heard all over the 
house. He was willing to do everything Mr. John 
suggested. He said he was returning to Hiau-kan in 



90 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

three days, and would send to the scene of the attack 
and punish the ringleaders, we having given him the 
names of the actual villages concerned and of three 
of the ringleaders. He said he would also issue a 
proclamation all through that part of the district. 
We were to go up in a week's time, by water, to the 
city, when he would send an escort to meet us, which 
would accompany us all the way. He said we might 
depend upon it we should see no other disturbances 
in any part of his district, but should be able to go 
everywhere in perfect safety. Everything seems to 
be coming out just as we could have desired it. We 
did not wish any one to be punished, but for the sake 
of the peace of the district the magistrate said it 
must be done." 

About three weeks after their interview with the 
chief magistrate of the Hiau-kan district, all the official 
correspondence between the English Consul and the 
Tau-tai being concluded, the missionaries were allowed 
to undertake a second visit to the villages where they 
had been so unfavourably received. 

" We took a boat from Hankow," writes Dr. Mac- 
kenzie ; " very comfortable in comparison with the one 
on which we travelled before. Leaving about mid-day, 
we ran slowly down the Yang-tse, and entered the river 
leading to Hiau-kan in time to anchor for the night. 
This river is remarkable for its constant windings and 
sharp bends ; at one point it converts a large portion 
of land almost into an island, being only a narrow 
neck of communication We took numerous walks 



LIGHT AFTER DARKNESS. 91 

along the banks, which were very enjoyable, as the 
weather was brisk and cold. Wherever the popula- 
tion was large we attracted great attention. We 
were again surprised at the great number of villages ; 
as we advanced on our journey the banks were lined 
with village after village, and whenever we looked 
inland there was the same sight to be seen. Tra- 
velling in the country, even more than in the large 
towns, I think, gives one an idea of the immensity 
of the population, when you see what an extent of 
country is included in one district, or hien, and human 
life abounding everywhere. We were surprised, at 
one part of our journey, to see a large stretch of 
pasture-land, — a rare sight in China, — with a number 
of buffaloes grazing. Towards evening, within a few 
miles of Hiau-kan city, our boat came to a standstill, 
owing to the shallowness of the water ; so we had to 
postpone visiting the city till next morning. 

" After an early breakfast, on the following day, we 
started in a sanpan for the city, where we arrived 
about ten o'clock. We at once sent our friend Wan 
on to the yamen, with a letter and our cards, while 
we awaited his return in the boat. We got a good 
amount of staring at, as was to be expected, seeing 
we had no place in the small sanpan in which to hide 
from view, and the people all seemed to know about 
our former attack. After our patience had been 
somewhat tried, an officer, accompanied by yamen 
runners, arrived, and escorted us to the yamen. The 
crowds following us were very great, and could only 



§2 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

just be kept back by the officials. Arrived at the 
yamen, we had an opportunity of witnessing the 
amount of license given to the populace. The yamen 
men tried in vain to keep back the crowd which 
poured after us into the courts of justice, even to 
the very door of the inner court to which we were 
conducted, and then a large number stood and stared 
at the open door, in the very presence of the mandarin, 
and listened to all that was said. Mr. John says he 
had never before been so well received by a Chinese 
magistrate. We were taken into the inner court, next 
to the private apartments, and the mandarin came 
out in his official robes and blue button. We had 
tea brought us — the best I have ever tasted — in the 
native fashion, without milk or sugar, and the 
magistrate remained talking with us for two hours. 

" On entering the hall, men who wished to speak to 
the mandarin went down on one knee. Graduates 
only are free from this ; yet even they are not allowed 
to sit down properly in his presence, and all others, 
however rich they may be, have to kneel. We, of 
course, bowed and sat down. During the interview 
this official made inquiries about the Gospel, and said 
he had imagined that the Protestants and Roman 
Catholics were all one. He remarked further, that 
he knew something of the Catholics ; they often 
defended their converts against the law when they 
were very bad men." 

With reference to this part of the conversation 
Mr. John himself writes as follows : — 



LIGHT AFTER DARKNESS. 93 

" When we called on the magistrate we were asked 
what we thought of the proclamation which he had 
issued in regard to this affair. I replied that my only 
objection to it was that it contained a reference to 
the Roman Catholic religion. ' But/ said he, c are 
you not one and the same ? ' This question led to 
a long conversation on the subject, in which I pointed 
out the difference, especially in our bearing towards 
the converts, and the kind of protection we claimed 
for them. 

"'Should one of our converts offend against the 
laws of his country, or in any way prove himself to be 
a bad man,' said I, 'he would be cut off from our 
Church, and you would deal with him as with any 
other subject. All we ask for him is that he be not 
molested in the exercise of his religion.' ' If that be 
so/ said he, * you must be different from the Roman 
Catholics ! What would you like me to do, and 
what alterations would you have me make in the 
proclamation ? ' He then sent for his secretary, and 
ordered him to write out new copies and hand them 
to me. When we arrived at the village where most 
of our converts live I found that some of them were 
threatened with dire calamities by their relations if 
they did not abandon the new faith at once. Seeing 
that most of this opposition sprang from ignorance, 
I wrote a letter to the magistrate stating the facts 
of the case, and requesting him to issue another 
proclamation embodying such and such sentiments. 
Early next morning I received four copies of a pro- 



94 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

clamation, which, to my surprise, I found to be little 
else than my own letter issued in an official form." 
Dr. Mackenzie continues the narrative as follows: — 
" The magistrate made inquiries about my work, and 
showed us every kindness. When we were leaving he 
charged two yamen runners to accompany us to the 
Wei village, and himself escorted us to the outer gate 
of the yamen, wishing us good-bye in the sight of 
the assembled people. It was a beautiful day, and 
we were glad to leave the city behind us and enter 
the open country. With our escort we formed quite 
a little party. After going some distance we met 
two other yamen runners, who had been sent to Peh- 
ching-tswei to protect us if we had come that way ; 
and we were told the mandarin had also sent mes- 
sengers in the direction of Tsai-tien, thinking we 
might come that way. We found the country here, 
as elsewhere, cultivated on every side, and thickly 
populated. As we neared the Wei village we noticed 
the people became much more excited, rushing 
hither and thither, and crying out ; they seemed to 
be full of life and energy. 

" Several members of the Wei family came out to 
meet us, and led us into the village. We entered one 
of the houses, for we were rather tired with the walk 
in the hot sun ; but we soon found it was impossible 
to remain indoors, so great was the excitement and 
curiosity on the part of the people. We therefore 
quickly went out again, and walked about, giving the 
people an opportunity of staring at us to their hearts' 



LIGHT AFTER DARKNESS. 95 

content. Preaching was quite out of the question, of 
course, although the people kept calling out to us to 
1 preach the book ; ' but every time Mr. John attempted 
to do it, he had to close very quickly, since it was 
evident the people had not yet satisfied their curiosity, 
and in consequence could not keep quiet. We were 
quite a marvel to the villagers, for, with the exception 
of our own friends, who were in the habit of coming 
to Hankow, none of them had seen a foreigner before. 
Whenever we entered the house of a convert a crowd 
would at once follow, and swarm all over the place. 
After dark it was just the same, for up to nine o'clock 
large parties kept coming from distant villages, and 
persisted in entering the house where we were, to 
stare at us. We found that the owner of a house in 
these parts has little control over it. It was very 
wearying, as we were both tired and hungry, having 
had nothing to eat since our light breakfast at 7 a.m. 
until 9 p.m. 

" The people were not always content to use merely 
their eyes ; they wanted to feel our clothes. I found 
one old woman lifting up the lower edge of my 
trousers to see what I had underneath. Our boots 
attracted a great deal of attention, and my spectacles. 
Not that spectacles were strange to them ; the small 
size only amazed them, as compared with their 
goggles. Many of them remarked that Mr. John 
was a Chinaman, his hair and eyes being quite black, 
and from his having no whiskers, but black moustache 
and pointed beard. Moreover, they noticed the ease 



96 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

and accuracy with which he speaks Chinese. But 
there was no doubt in their minds about me ; I was 
certainly a foreigner— my light hair, whiskers, and 
eyes were evidently quite opposed to the Chinese 
idea of things. 

" Next day platforms used by travelling actors for 
stage plays were brought out, and fixed up for our 
use, and then, with immense crowds in every direction, 
Mr. John was enabled to preach till he was hoarse. 
Sleeping at night in the mud huts of the people was 
anything but agreeable. We got them to place 
boards on tressels for us, but were kept awake at 
night by the rats running over our heads. At one 
meal our host, thinking to give us something done in 
foreign style which we should like, cooked a lot of 
eggs, stripped off their shells, cut them up, and put 
them into a strong syrup made of sugar and hot 
water. This, you may imagine, was hardly after our 
taste, but when you are hungry you do not look at 
what you eat. 

" The villagers here are the finest lot of men I have 
yet seen in China, and Mr. John has never seen finer ; 
they are athletic, manly, fearless, and simple. Those 
who have become Christians are very fine fellows, 
letting everybody know about it when it is almost 
ruin to them." 

With reference to this visit Mr. John also writes : — 

" The Christians were delighted to see us among 
them, and did all they could to make our visit a 
happy one to ourselves and a blessing to their heathen 



LIGHT AFTER DARKNESS. 97 

neighbours. Accompanied by some of them we 
visited all the surrounding villages, and preached the 
Gospel to thousands of men and women who had 
never seen a foreigner before. In several of the 
villages platforms were raised for us, and immense 
congregations gathered to see and listen to our 
message. In one village there must have been two 
thousand people at least, and the sight reminded 
me of those grand open-air meetings held amid the 
mountains of my native Wales, which I have often 
attended, and which used to have such charms for me 
in days gone by. The curiosity of the people had 
been fairly excited, and everywhere crowds of men, 
women, and children were waiting our arrival. We 
had splendid opportunities of making the truth widely 
known, and we availed ourselves of them to the 
utmost extent of our power. I must have preached 
a dozen times at least on the second day of our arrival, 
for we commenced with the rising sun and continued 
long after the lamp of light had sunk and the cloudy 
veil of night been drawn. We made it a special 
point to call at the villages where we had been 
molested, and preach the gospel of peace and good- 
will to the inhabitants. At first the villagers appeared 
shy and guilty, but after full explanation of principles 
and intentions on our part, and many expressions ot 
regret on theirs, much of this timidity passed away ; 
and we took our leave of them feeling assured that 
they knew us better and cherished more kindly 
feelings towards us." 

7 



98 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

It is interesting to know that the work, which was 
begun amid great opposition in this place, where the 
missionaries' lives had been in imminent danger, has 
been greatly blessed of God. As so often before in 
the history of the Church of Christ, so now, the very 
action taken by its opponents to suppress the religion 
of Jesus seemed in the end rather to give it a larger 
entrance. As Dr. Mackenzie himself wrote : " I can 
only give the result of that visit in a verse of Faber's : — 

' All that Thou blessest turns to good, 
And unblest good to ill ; 
And all is right that seems most wrong, 
If it be Thy sweet will.' " 

About two years after this visit Mr. John was able 
to write : " I have just returned from the district of 
Hiau-kan, where my heart was greatly cheered. The 
village is likely to become a Christian village." Some 
time after, two chapels were built in this district, with 
funds raised by the country people themselves and 
the help of other native Christians in Hankow ; the 
villagers gave also much of their time and labour to 
the work of raising these little sanctuaries for the 
worship of the true God. As lately as 1889 we find 
that the converts to Christianity in this neighbourhood 
continue to grow in numbers, and every year, through 
the blessing of the Lord of the harvest, sees the 
progress to be more marked, new centres of work 
being added to the old, and houses for the worship of 
God being erected there. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PREJUDICE OVERCOME, 



The Fame of the Western Physician — Chinese Medical 
Theories — Charms against Disease — Chinese Faith in 
Surgery — A Hare-lip Case — Prepared for an Audi- 
ence with the Emperor — The Spirit's Revenge — How 
the Boatman Regained his Child — A Restless Patient — 
Opium Smokers — Seven Hundred in a Year — Telling their 
Neighbours — The Opium Smoker Cured — Sacrifices for 
Christ's Sake — The Restored Barber — Jesus the Only 
Saviour — "Where are the Nine?" — The Value of 
Medical Work — Choosing a Chinese Name — Phases of 
Foreign Community Life — A Christian Worker — A 
Chinese Fire — More Noise than Work — Sailors' Meet- 
ings — Difficulty of the Chinese Language — A Country 
Trip — The Missionaries Stoned — The Margary Affair 
Settled — Country Sights and Industries — First Sermon in 
Chinese — Hatred of Foreigners — Hospital Notes. 



CHAPTER VI. 
PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 

AS time went on, the fame of the skilful Western 
surgeon spread far and wide throughout the 
province of Hupeh, and patients came in to Hankow 
from great distances, seeking relief at the hospital. 
Many diseases which had hitherto been considered 
incurable were healed, and the patients returned 
home rejoicing. Not a few in the last stages of fatal 
sickness were brought to the dispensary, and when 
they were informed that nothing could be done for 
them, their friends still showed great unwillingness 
to carry them away, pleading with much earnestness 
that they might not be sent away unhealed. 

Rumour does not minimize the wonders performed 
by foreign medical skill, and cases are not unknown 
where the physician has been summoned even after 
death had actually taken place, with the idea, appa- 
rently, that one could never tell what was within 
the power of these strange foreign doctors. 

In China medical theories are so closely associated 
with a knowledge of letters that most literary men 
are supposed to have some acquaintance with the 



102 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

healing art ; and when official employment fails, many 
of them turn to medicine as a means of support. 
Medical knowledge is handed down from father to 
son in the shape of carefully-gathered prescriptions 
for the cure of certain well-known diseases. Wr iting 
on this subject Dr. Mackenzie says : — 

" Chinese doctors profess to be able to diagnose 
disease by the state of the pulse only. Their know- 
ledge of anatomy and physiology is almost nil ; yet 
in place of exact knowledge they substitute the most 
absurd theories. The nature of disease being un- 
known, they attribute to the influence of the * five 
elements ' the onset of disease. To a large extent 
the physiological action of drugs is unknown, and 
most wonderful healing properties are attributed to 
such substances as dragons' teeth, fossils, tiger bones, 
pearls, etc. 

" A Chinese doctor examines the pulse of each wrist 
of his patient with much solemnity, the sick person's 
hand resting meantime upon a cushion, while the 
friends stand round watching the operation with 
much awe. The tongue is then examined, and a 
prescription written out ; the doctor then departs, after 
giving his diagnosis and going into long explanations 
of what is taking place in his patient's interior. Many 
of the Chinese wonder much that foreign physicians 
should make so many enquiries of their patients ; they 
think that they should be able to find out all about 
such matters from the condition of the pulse. 

" Moreover, superstitious notions and practices con- 



PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 103 

trol and pervert medicine. In almost every case of 
sickness, idols, astrologers, and fortune-tellers are 
consulted. Disease is generally attributed to the 
anger of the gods, or to a visitation of evil spirits ; the 
priests indeed teach this for their own ends. Charms 
are in general use to expel evil spirits and pacify the 
offended gods, and many idolatrous rites are employed. 
The noise of gongs and fire-crackers used in these 
observances is constantly heard, and of necessity 
proves very injurious to a patient whose nervous 
system is weakened by disease. The charms are 
written out and pasted about the sick-room ; some- 
times these marvellous pieces of paper are burned, and 
the ashes used to make a decoction, which the patient 
is ordered to drink. It is not wonderful, therefore, 
that, medical science being in so unsatisfactory a state 
in China, the cures wrought by the foreign doctors 
seem to the people little short of miraculous ; and in 
many cases the difficulty is not to get the people to 
believe in the foreign medical man, but rather for 
them to understand there is a limit to his healing 
power." 

" What faith some of these people have in the 
knife ! " writes Dr. Mackenzie. " A patient in the hos- 
pital with great tumours on his face daily pleads to 
be operated upon, and the friend who accompanies 
him seconds his entreaties. Another man has brought 
in a son who is weak-minded, and begs that he may 
be healed. They came from a long distance in the 
country, and the man's disappointment was keen 



104 /OHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

when he found nothing could be done for his boy. 
The father remained in Hankow for some time, how- 
ever, to learn the doctrine, and became a sincere 
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and an earnest 
worker among his fellow-countrymen." 

Another interesting case was that of a Master of 
Arts living in the province of Kwei-chow, more than 
one thousand miles from Hankow. It was necessary 
for this gentleman to visit Peking and appear before 
the Emperor, and he was much distressed by the fact 
that he had a hare-lip. Hearing of the wonders 
wrought by foreign surgical skill, he journeyed to 
Hankow, and was greatly delighted by the cure that 
was effected upon him. 

A curious idea prevalent among the Chinese is that 
a spirit can wield much greater power when separated 
from the body ; and this is one of the reasons why 
ancestral worship is so closely bound up with the 
people's life. On this account persons desiring to 
take vengeance upon their enemies will frequently 
commit suicide in order to obtain their end. This is 
a sure means of bringing down punishment upon the 
head of the enemy, since the magistrate will hold 
him responsible for the death, on the principle that if 
it had not been for the quarrel the man would not 
have died. 

A military mandarin, who had betrayed a trust 
confided to him by a friend during his absence from 
home, was accused at the yamen of his crime ; the 
petitioner immediately left the court of justice and 



PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 105 

drowned himself in the Yang-tse, the sequel being 
that the accused was at once beheaded. 

Characteristically Chinese, therefore, was the case 
of a boatman, who, at this time, appeared at the 
Hankow hospital with a circular wound, the size of 
a shilling, opening into his windpipe. 

The story he told was as follows. Being in desti- 
tute circumstances, his wife sold their little boy, 
only six years of age, to a stranger, without the know- 
ledge of the father. Upon discovering what his wife 
had done the man was very angry. He sought out 
the purchaser, and demanded from him the restoration 
of his child. The man took no notice of the father's 
importunities, and expressed his intention of retaining 
the little boy. As a last resource, the parent deter- 
mined to try what effect an attempt to cut his own 
throat would have as a means towards frightening the 
purchaser of his child into compliance with his request. 
The stratagem proved to be completely successful, 
since, fearing that the matter might end in his being 
required to forfeit his own life by the magistrates, he 
hastily gave up the boy to his father. 

" The Chinese," says Dr. Mackenzie, " expect instant 
cures. When old-standing cases of disease arrive, and 
we advise their remaining in the wards, the almost 
invariable query is, ' How many days will it be before 
I get quite well ? ' " 

As an illustration of some of the difficulties attending 
medical treatment, he relates the case of a man who 
was received into the hospital with fracture of the 



106 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

thigh bone. It had been repeatedly explained to him 
that he must on no account remove the splint and 
appliances, and that time would be required to effect 
a complete cure ; but at the end of a week, seeing 
no manifest improvement, his friends removed the 
bandages and splint, and carried him off. 

Writing to a friend with reference to the year 1876 
the Doctor says : — 

" I have been led gradually into doing a good 
deal for opium smokers, without aiming at very 
great things, yet seeking to aid those who are 
enslaved by the terrible drug. Our patients in this 
department have so increased that we now hardly 
know where to sleep them. As they, for the most 
part, come from long distances, and support themselves 
while in the hospital, we feel it to be wrong to refuse 
them admittance, since they carry to their homes a 
knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. 

" I have been much attracted to Moody's work in 
America in connection with drunkards. There he is 
finding the gospel of salvation capable of meeting their 
condition, and in like manner, in connection with these 
opium smokers, we are looking for some results by 
presenting to them the Jesus of the Bible as the great 
remedy for their case. Oh ! do pray for us out here, 
that we may be kept very near to the great Saviour, 
to know His methods better, to be filled with His 
spirit, and to be ever listening to His teachings. I 
believe it is a living Saviour that these Chinese need ; 
but I am afraid that the work is hindered by the lack 



PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 107 



of faith and the want of devotion to His work of 
some of us workers. 

" You will see how the work among opium smokers 
has been increased when I give you the following 
figures. I made a rule to treat these cases only in 
the wards, as giving medicine indiscriminately proved 
very unsatisfactory. For the first ten months eight 
persons only agreed to enter the hospital. During 
the past year the numbers increased to two hundred 
and thirty-five ; and during the last month and a half 
three hundred and twenty have entered the wards for 
treatment." 

Writing at a later date, the Doctor states that 
these cases have continued to increase in numbers, 
and that in one year seven hundred persons were 
treated for opium smoking in the wards of the 
Hankow hospital. 

" That a great need," he writes, " has existed for 
some kindly help to be extended in this direction is 
very certain. The habit of opium smoking, prolonged 
for any length of time, plays havoc with a man's 
natural energy, rendering him indolent and enervated. 
Few in this condition can, unaided, combat the craving 
for opium and effectually reform. The attempt is 
often made, but as often ends in disappointment ; for 
a time they persevere, but when the intolerable crav- 
ing, accompanied by extreme bodily depression, with 
violent aching of the joints and muscular pains, sets 
in, they fly to their old enemy, and drown themselves 
in the opium stupor. If the need is being felt in 



io8 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



England for the further extension of homes for 
habitual drunkards, much more is the restraint needed 
for opium smokers in Eastern lands. 

" A large proportion of the slaves of the pipe who 
present themselves for treatment come from towns 
and villages at varying distances, though many are 
residents of Hankow. They come acquainted with our 
conditions, and are ready to submit to them. There 
is no medicinal specific guaranteed to cure ; the object 
aimed at is to relieve the symptoms as they arise, 
and so to help the patient back to health and freedom. 

" I always tell them the medicine given to them is to 
relieve the pain and craving, but they are to pray to 
God and believe in Jesus to get the desire taken from 
their hearts, and new hearts given to them. They 
thus carry back a knowledge of the Gospel north, 
south, east, and west. 

" It will be asked, But is there evidence that after 
they leave the hospital they do not quickly return to 
their old habit ? Doubtless some do, but we are sure 
that many do not. It would be impossible to give an 
accurate proportion of permanently successful cases, 
but this is known, that new arrivals seeking admission, 
in reply to the question, * What has brought you to 
the hospital for treatment ? ' almost invariably answer, 
* I have friends and neighbours who have already 
been cured here.' " 

The Doctor mentions, among others, the following 
case of an opium smoker who was cured, and became 
a Christiaa 



PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 109 

" The man's name was Tai ; he was a fortune-teller, 
of about twenty-five years of age, and appeared at the 
hospital emaciated and feeble, accompanied by his 
mother, an old lady over sixty years of age. The 
watchful care manifested by the mother attracted 
our attention, and upon enquiry the following facts 
were elicited. 

" The son carried on a thriving business as a fortune- 
teller, but he had taken to opium smoking, which 
had led to disastrous results. His earnings were 
squandered, his health was broken down, and his poor 
old mother made wretched. In consequence chiefly 
of the entreaties of the old lady, the man applied for 
treatment, and his mother asked permission to stay 
and wait upon him. 

" Such a case was at the outset very unpromising. 
Here was a man yielding to moral compulsion in a 
matter which required the utmost resolution. Yet 
this step was the turning-point in the man's career ; 
not only was his cure most complete, but he became 
interested in the Gospel, drank in the only sure 
antidote for his disease, and success in treatment 
followed as a necessary consequence. Who shall say 
that the earnest desire, the prayer of the heathen 
mother groping in her darkness, was not heard and 
answered by Him who reads all hearts ? 

" With the adoption of Christianity our patient felt 
that he must abandon his former calling. But his 
aged mother was dependent upon his exertions for 
her support ; what was to be done ? To meet this 



JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



difficulty our dispenser, Siau, who is very active in 
Christian work among the patients, suggested that Tai 
should set up in business as a dealer in nuts. This 
having been his own trade before he was employed 
in the hospital, he was able to give the ex-fortune- 
teller all the information needed, and he decided to 
try and earn his living in this way. This man has 
since carried on his new occupation, which, though less 
remunerative than his former means of support, has 
brought to him and his widowed mother happiness 
and contentment. 

" At the church meeting at which this man was 
formally accepted as a member a friend of his spoke 
of having visited his home, and of the consistency of 
his life with his present profession of Christianity. 
He told us the old mother had said, ' I am delighted 
that my son has become a Christian, for although he 
earns less, he brings me home more money than 
formerly, and our home is now a happy one.' " 

Two other patients who had been cured of opium 
smoking in the hospital were accidentally encountered 
by Mr. John while on a boat journey some time after- 
wards. The wind being unfavourable, he failed to 
reach the town at which he had intended to stay for 
the night, and consequently was obliged to anchor at 
a small village, — a collection of houses merely, all of 
them shops, which had grown up to supply the needs 
of the boatmen who might find it necessary to anchor 
there for the night. It was raining fast, and as the 
place was so small and the hour late, Mr. John did 



PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 



not go ashore, but sent the colporteur with a few- 
books for sale. After a time the man returned, 
greatly pleased, with the news that he had been most 
kindly received by two men of the respective names 
of Ting and Tsung, who had been cured of opium 
smoking in the hospital. 

Mr. John, upon hearing this, landed and sought out 
the men. On his way to their house the neighbours, 
seeing a foreigner, remarked, " We know where you 
are going, — to the house of Tsung, whom you cured 
of opium smoking." Mr. John found this man had 
removed from his house all idols and other relics of 
idolatry, and both of the ex-patients professed to 
believe in Christ, and to worship God. Mr. John 
invited them on board the boat for further instruction 
that evening. They seemed grateful for the relief given 
to them at the hospital, and next morning Ting sent 
a present of eggs on board. 

A man from Mien Yang, one hundred miles from 
Hankow, returned, two months after he had left the 
hospital, cured of opium smoking. He travelled the 
long distance a second time in order that he might 
be baptized. 

A barber, who earned one hundred and fifty cash 
a day, spent one hundred and twenty on opium ; as 
a consequence, want of nourishing food aided the ill 
effects of years of opium smoking, and brought him 
into a state of great misery. He heard the Gospel 
at the city chapel, and, at the request of Mr. John, 
entered the hospital. He suffered severely for some 



H2 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

days, but in the strength of God gained the victory 
over his besetting sin, and went out healed. He has 
since been a changed man, invigorated in constitution, 
and bright and happy in demeanour. Through his 
earnest activity, but more than all on account of his 
changed life, others have been won into the Church. 
One man had kept an opium den and been an opium 
smoker for fifteen years. He was enabled to give it 
up and become a Christian. These men are examples 
of the power of Divine grace. A Tauist and two 
Buddhist priests were treated for opium smoking at 
the same time. The hospital assistant referred to this 
fact at a recent church meeting, concluding his remarks 
by saying, " How true it is that Jesus is the only 
Saviour." 

"It is very cheering," continues the Doctor, " to see 
the active interest the native Christians take in the 
hospital. Many of the Hankow converts are earnest 
workers for Christ, and when engaged in seeking the 
conversion of their relatives and friends they often 
bring them when sick to the dispensary, hoping that 
the benefits they will get to their bodies, and the 
kind treatment they will personally receive, may win 
from them a better attention to and deeper interest 
in the gospel. One earnest Christian named Koh 
recently said, when a friend of his was baptized, ' I 
have brought ten friends, but after being cured, like 
the lepers in the Gospel, only one has returned to 
give thanks.' One man was under treatment for a 
contusion, the result of a beating he had received 



PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 113 

from his friends because he had become a Christian. 
Another man of the name of Yang was in the 
hospital for pneumonia of one lung, from which he 
made a good recovery. Coming constantly under 
the influence of Siau, the hospital preacher, he was 
converted to Christianity, and has since himself been a 
zealous missionary, having brought his aged father and 
other friends and fellow-workmen into the Church." 

In a home letter, written at about this time, Dr. 
Mackenzie says : — 

" I am beginning to be known at considerable dis- 
tances from Hankow, for our patients come from 
far-off places. Mr. Hayt, of the American Episcopal 
Mission, has been on a journey down the Yang-tse, 
and upon his return he called upon me. He tells me 
that many people are enquiring after -' M ah E-Seng' 
(my Chinese name) ; some of them have been 
patients in the hospital, others are thinking of travel- 
ling up to Hankow for treatment. It is pleasant to 
hear this, because these people would be well inclined 
to any foreigner they might meet now, and would 
treat missionaries well after being well cared for in 
our wards. I have been fortunate in getting a good 
Chinese name, for the Chinese look very much at the 
meaning of names. My surname is 'Mah/ the sound 
that the Chinese would give in trying to say Mac. My 
second name is ' Kun-ge,' which means that my kun 
or root is ge, which means to succour or relieve suffer- 
ing. As the root is the most important part of a 
tree, the Chinese say the object of a man's life is his 

8 



114 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

root. So ' Ma-kun-ge,' which is almost exactly as the 
natives would pronounce the name Mackenzie, means 
that the ' Kun ' of ' Mah ' is ' ge,' to relieve people. 

" Shun, Mr. John's old teacher, thought of ' Kun ; ' 
Mr. John himself of ' ge.' ' E-Seng ' is the title given 
to doctors here." 

On April 3rd, 1876, there is a note in the Doctor's 
diary to the effect that at this time he commenced a 
prayer-meeting for the in-patients in the evening. 

In the middle of the summer Mr. John, with his 
young colleague, taking advantage of a slight break 
in the great heat, paid a visit to a place called 
Hwang-chin-kow, on the river Han. 

"We had been there several times during the 
winter," writes Dr. Mackenzie, " when there was only 
one Christian living there, and now there are twelve ; 
quite a little Church. These Christians usually come 
down to Hankow for worship every Sunday, but 
it is a long way for them ; so when the weather is 
good Mr. John tries to get a service there, by 
sending one of the native Christians from the older 
Church to preach to the little band of believers. 
In the very hot weather, such as we have been 
having, it would not be safe for a foreigner to go. 

" We left about three o'clock on Saturday afternoon, 
after I had got through my out-patients, in a closed 
boat, kindly lent by one of the hongs. When we 
anchored for the night we were some miles up the 
Han, having had a favourable wind ; indeed we were 
close to our destination. We found it a great comfort 



PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 115 

to be able to sleep without our mosquito nets, which 
we had brought with us, for there was a good strong 
breeze blowing on the river, which kept the trouble- 
some insects away. We had a service with the 
converts about seven o'clock on Sunday morning in 
one of their houses, and I very much enjoyed it. I 
am getting to understand the preacher now, and find 
it a great treat to be able to follow the sermons 
somewhat. A man was brought to us at this place 
suffering from tetanus. After the service, having a 
good wind, we went on to Tsai-tien, a town of twenty 
thousand inhabitants ; and Mr. John preached for 
about three hours in different parts." [At this place 
we find from his diary, what is not mentioned in his 
home letter, that the missionaries were very badly 
received ; they were stoned several times, and found 
the people exceedingly insolent] " The wind was 
dead against us coming back, and we had to crawl 
along by constant tacking. As there was no hope of 
getting our big boat home that night, we called a 
sanpan, or small boat, just wide enough for us to sit 
alongside of one another in, and in which, as Mr. 
John said, it would not do for us to quarrel. We 
reached Hankow about ten o'clock. 

" A patient was brought to the hospital to-day with 
choleraic diarrhoea, carried on a sort of bed like a small 
four-poster ; he came from a place more than six miles 
away, and was very, very ill." 

In the autumn of 1876 the Doctor writes to his 
brother : — 



Ii6 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

" You have probably heard, even as I am writing, 
that peace has been happily settled with China. 

" Sir Thomas Wade, whatever has been surmised in 
the past, has evidently done his work well. Without 
the cost of any money, or the loss of a single man in 
battle, he has obtained everything he demanded. 

" New ports are to be thrown open on the coast and 
on the Yang-tse. There is to be a traffic route from 
Yunnan (in the heart of China) into Burmah, and a 
heavy indemnity is to be paid to the friends of Mr. 
Margary. But what is more important, as likely to 
create a moral effect on the Chinese nation, is that an 
ambassador is to be sent to England to apologise to 
the Queen, and the whole affair is to be published in 
the Peking Gazette. 

" It remains now for Sir Thomas Wade to see that 
these important items are carried out effectively. If 
this is done it will be a great blow to the Chinese. 
Such is the ignorance, prejudice, and falsehood to be 
found in Chinese life, especially official life, that it 
was the general opinion in the empire that the time 
had come to drive all foreigners out of the country, 
and that the sooner war took place the better, as the 
Chinese must be victorious. When Li Hung Chang 
went down to Chefoo to arrange matters with our 
government, it was currently reported that he had gone 
to order our minister out of the country and declare war. 

" On Tuesday last I returned from another trip 
up the Han with Mr. John. The Han is a small 
river in China, but would be considered a very 



PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 117 



important one in England. We went one hundred 
and twenty miles up it. The banks are very thickly 
peopled ; you are unable to find many hundred 
yards of land free from villages, and large towns arc 
quite numerous. We went the whole length of our 
journey before we commenced any missionary work, 
intending to visit the towns on our homeward journey. 
We took long walks ashore, and I saw for the first 
time the cotton plant, which was planted over many 
acres. Here the plant is not higher than a goose- 
berry bush, and the little bunches of white cotton 
hanging among the green leaves on the bushes look 
very pretty. 

" There were also many acres of millet everywhere 
to be seen, giving a very tropical appearance to the 
country. The ear of millet grows at the top of a stalk 
ten and twelve feet high ; the very poorest people eat 
it in place of rice. They cultivate the hemp plant 
largely also, from the grain of which they express oil, 
used for burning in native lamps and for mixing 
with their food. 

" The breeding of silkworms is extensively carried 
on, and there were a large number of mulberry trees. 
And what was of much interest, I saw the tallow tree, 
though it was not in fruit. The Chinese use this 
vegetable tallow largely in making their candles. 
The berries on the tree, when fully ripe, cast off their 
outer shell, leaving exposed a white surface, the layer 
of tallow surrounding the small kernel. We went 
over one of the numerous manufactories for expressing 



ii8 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

oil, and saw the whole process. The machinery, as 
you may imagine, is very rough. 

" We commenced work at a large market town at the 
end of our journey, to which but few foreigners have 
ever been. The people here have the name of being- 
noisy, and they did not improve their character, as 
they did their very best to insult us. They are very 
cowardly, and when they throw at you it is always 
from behind. However, this was the worst reception 
we had on the journey, as we found the people less 
rough in other places. I commenced preaching in 
Chinese on this trip, which I look upon as a great 
advance. Mr. John does not know what it means to 
be afraid, I think. When we entered the crowded 
streets of a city or town, after choosing a suitable 
place to preach from, he would tell me to go on into 
the town and do my best at preaching and selling 
books in some other part. Of course I went, looking 
to God to take care of me ; and though at first, when 
surrounded by great crowds, I was inclined to feel 
shaky, it soon passed away, and I was much helped 
in doing my best at preaching, and generally got the 
people to listen attentively. I was thus able to teach 
some elementary truths of the gospel. 

" The people will tell you, when you ask what they 
worship, that * heaven and earth are the greatest, and 
parents the most honourable.' They will not, as a 
rule, tell you that they worship idols ; they have no 
idea of a supreme Being. The people's contempt for 
foreigners is very great. In walking along the streets 



PREJUDICE OVERCOME. 119 

selling books and Gospels (we have to charge a small 
sum for them, or they would be torn up and thrown 
away) a respectable shop-keeper will call you into his 
shop, saying he wishes to buy a book. You enter, and 
he will immediately laugh in your face, saying he wants 
no books, and make some insulting remark about you. 

" This and such-like conduct is occurring constantly 
while we are in towns, and considering how excessively 
polite the Chinese are to each other, and how care- 
fully their books exhort to ceremonious and respectful 
behaviour towards strangers, we can clearly see what 
is their real feeling towards us. 

" This is, therefore, a work which naturally one is 
very little inclined for ; only when we remember we 
are working for their benefit, and that our Lord for 
our good never thought of Himself, we are able to 
bear such conduct cheerfully. 

" Evangelizing in unfrequented populous towns in 
China gives one a very vivid idea of the life of our 
Lord while on earth, and the kind of work He must 
have done ; and especially of the wonderful patience, 
forbearance, and love He showed when in contact 
with ignorance, prejudice, and vice. To be serving 
such a Master in such a cause ennobles every work. 

"We lived on native food, and I can assure you en- 
joyed, on returning to the boat after our excursions on 
shore, our bowl of rice, with pork, fish, or vegetables, and 
soon got to use our chopsticks with as much ease and 
pleasure as if they had been the best Sheffield cutlery. 

" This health trip did both Mr. John and myself a 



120 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

great deal of good, and it was well spent, for we were 
able to return to our regular work in Hankow with 
all the more zest. 

" During my absence I was able to leave the hospital 
in the hands of my chief native assistant, Mr. Yang, 
who is now very competent. I get now and again 
good practice in surgery. A few weeks ago I operated 
upon a woman, taking away a tumour the size of a 
young baby's head, weighing two pounds. She is 
now quite well. Yesterday I removed a woman's 
breast for hard cancer, and she is doing well. We 
have difficulties here which are not experienced at 
home. I have often to give chloroform myself, and 
then operate, having no assistants who could be 
responsible for that, though they are so very useful. 

" To-day I took away the right upright portion of 
the lower jaw of a man suffering from advanced 
disease of the jaw-bone. I got it away through the 
mouth after having removed the teeth. He is likely 
to get quite well, all the diseased bone having been 
removed. 

" My assistant did two operations on the eye to-day 
for the removal of pterygium. These are growths 
on the eye very common in China, which almost 
destroy the sight ; in fact, this man was to all intents 
and purposes blind. By getting rid of these growths 
sight is restored. 

" I make every serious operation a subject for prayer, 
and I am thankful to God that no death has occurred 
after even the most severe operations." 



CHAPTER VII. 

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF MEDICAL 
MISSION WORK. 



Marriage — Work on the Tea-ships — Popularity of the 
Hospital — Rather Die than Lose a Limb — A Filial Son- 
Difficulty of Treating Chinese Women — " She Prefers to 
Die!" — Persecution of Native Christians — The Paralytic 
Beggar — Chinese Generosity — Explosion of Gunpowder 
Magazine — Hydrophobia — Happy Deaths of Native 
Christians — The Tea Planter's Son — Discussion on 
Christianity — Attempted Suicide — From the Gates of 
Death — Making Two Mouths— Bishop Patteson's Life — 
Chinese Country Life — A Han-lin's Grave — Reception on 
Village Green — A Leader of Dragon Festivals — An Object 
of Interest — Idols Given Up — Swindling the Foreigner — 
How Some of the Chinese Gentry Live. 



CHAPTER VII. 

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF MEDICAL 
MISSION WORK. 

TOWARDS the end of December 1876 Dr. 
Mackenzie went down to Shanghai to meet the 
lady to whom he was betrothed, and whose acquaint- 
ance he had first made while they were both engaged 
in Christian work in Bristol. 

Miss Travers arrived early in January, and on the 
9th of that month they were married by Dean 
Butcher in the Cathedral, Shanghai, and left imme- 
diately for their station in Hankow. 

The hospital continued to grow in popularity, and 
the Doctor made such progress with the language 
that he was able, towards the end of the year, to write 
to a friend, " I preach regularly in the hospital before 
commencing the out-patients, so that I am getting 
into working order." 

His young wife also began with much enthusiasm 
the study of Chinese, and when the tea season arrived, 
and the tea-ships flocked up the broad Yang-tse and 
anchored over against Hankow, both husband and 
wife engaged in work among the English sailors in 

123 



124 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

company with Mrs. Griffith John, whose name will be 
long remembered in the far east as the sailors' friend. 

"We are now established in our pretty home," 
writes the Doctor to his brother, " which looks both 
thoroughly home-like and comfortable, thanks to 
Millie's deft fingers." 

The daily routine of life was occasionally varied 
by visits across the Yang-tse to the Wuchang side, 
or up the Han to the Wesleyan Mission House at 
the Wu Shen Miau. 

It is not possible to give any detailed account of 
the good work which, with God's blessing, Dr. 
Mackenzie was able to perform in alleviating suffer- 
ing in the wards of the Hankow hospital. We 
select, however, a few cases as specimens of the 
service which day by day he was enabled to render 
to the Master, remembering that his one aim all 
through his career in China was, as he wrote him- 
self, to make medicine the handmaid of the Gospel, 
seeking, through the administration of medical relief, 
to advance the cause of our Lord and Master Jesus 
Christ, thus combining- the healing of the body with 
the curing of the soul, in accordance with the words 
of Scripture, " And He sent them to preach the 
kingdom of God, and to heal the sick." 

During this year a total of one thousand one 
hundred and thirty-seven patients were treated in 
the wards, thirty-three being women ; and the large 
number of eleven thousand eight hundred and fifty- 
nine out-patients attended at the dispensary. 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 125 

"The hospital is flourishing more than ever," hewrites 
to his mother ; "one hundred and fifteen out-patients 
one day, and ninety-four the next, all to be seen and 
attended to pretty well by myself. The in-patients, 
too, are very numerous ; we have forty-two beds, but 
they are all full, and many lying on the floor ; I am 
having new beds made. Many of the people come 
from long distances ; twenty arrived in one day from 
the same town." 

The Doctor also reports a great increase in surgical 
work, and rejoices in this, since, speaking generally, 
and with reference to the purely native medical pro- 
fession, he gives us to understand that the birthday 
of surgery has hardly dawned in China, for with the 
exception of acu-puncture and the lancing of super- 
ficial abscesses, operative interference is, as a rule, 
unknown. 

" I am passionately fond of surgery," he writes to 
his brother, " and never happier than when I am 
about to undertake some big operation. Can you 
understand the taste? 

" Happily for the Chinaman, fractures are not 
common among them, and when they do occur they 
are left pretty much to take care of themselves. A 
case of compound fracture of the arm, of many months' 
standing, came to the hospital ; the broken shaft of 
the bone was protruding two inches through the skin. 
No attempt had been made to replace it, and the 
patient had remained exactly as the accident left 
him. Being a young and healthy man, new bone 



126 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

had formed without much shortening of the arm, and 
the protruding portion, having separated during the 
healing process, was loosely lying in the cavity, only 
needing to be lifted out with the fingers. Yet it 
would have been allowed to lie undisturbed, in spite 
of the constant unpleasant discharge, until it had 
actually fallen out That it is rare for a native 
patient to sacrifice a limb, even though it be to save 
his life, is a well-attested fact. This is specially so 
where amputation is called for in cases of disease, but 
when after an accident the operation becomes clearly 
necessary, the determined opposition to it is remark- 
able. A case in point has recently been in the wards. 
A passenger on board the S.5. Shanghai was struck 
down by a bale of cotton, and received a compound 
fracture of both bones of the right leg. He was 
admitted into the hospital, and an attempt made to 
save the limb ; this proving to be impossible, ampu- 
tation was proposed as the only alternative. The 
man, however, would not consent, preferring, as he 
said, to die rather than lose one of his limbs. 

" Of the tumours removed, many are very large in 
size, but one in particular, from its unusual dimen- 
sions, merits description. The case was that of a young 
man, twenty-four years of age, a native of Kiangse, 
who presented himself with an immense solid tumour 
suspended from the loins, not unlike a large ham in 
appearance. It measured forty-three inches round ; 
his parents had first noticed a small growth in his 
eleventh year, and it had been continually enlarging, 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 127 

until now, at the end of thirteen years, it had reached 
its present enormous bulk. Much shock was ex- 
perienced immediately after the operation, and for a 
few days the temperature of the body rose ; but in a 
month the wound had healed, and the patient, relieved 
of his encumbrance, looked a sprightly, active young 
man." 

Upon his recovery, in token of gratitude for the 
relief afforded him, this patient sent the following 
letter for insertion in a daily paper. 

The editor introduced it with the remark that for 
a foreigner to write to a newspaper expressing his 
indebtedness to his medical attendant might be 
considered out of place. The Chinese custom, how- 
ever, is different, and Dr. Mackenzie will, he is assured, 
feel grateful at this tribute to the excellence of 
Western surgery. 

" To the Editor of the ' North China Daily News.' 

" Sir, — There is connected with the London Missionary 
Society of Hankow a celebrated English Dr. Mackenzie, 
who has been there many years, is skilled in curing all 
sorts of maladies, and never receives money from any 
patients whom he cures. For ten years I, a native of 
T'-Ming-Chow, in Kiangse, suffered from a tumour in my 
back. At first I did not mind it, but at length it became 
as large as a peck, so that I could walk with difficulty, and 
I was much afraid that it would kill me. 

" I had engaged many doctors, but no one could do me 
good. I was compelled, therefore, to go to Hankow in 
search of a more skilled doctor. Fortunately a friend of 
mine, named Kwo Shan-kai, recommended Dr. Mackenzie to 



128 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE, 

me. Accordingly I went with him to the Doctor's. He, on 
inspection, said that the tumour could not be cured without 
cutting it off with a knife, and added that I had nothing to 
fear from the cutting. On October 4th last he gave me 
some narcotic to take, and immediately, with a knife, cut 
off the tumour, which was twenty -five pounds in weight. 
In about twenty days I completely recovered. As a return 
to the Doctor, I shall thank you to put this in your paper in 
jrder to celebrate his name. I am, Sir, 

" Yours most respectfully, 

" Hu-Tsze-Koh." 

" Faith is a wonderful faculty," writes the Doctor, 
" and common enough in the world. Would that it 
were always wisely directed ! Instances of misdirected 
faith are plentiful in China, and are constantly coming 
under the notice of the medical missionary. Here is 
a specimen. One day there came into our dispensary 
a young man of twenty, with a large excavated wound 
of the left arm, evidently caused by some cutting 
instrument. In reply to our queries he gave the 
following history. He had a sick father, ill for many 
months with dropsy, ' who had suffered many things 
of many physicians, and was nothing better, but 
rather grew worse.' Finally, the relatives, assembled 
in solemn conclave, decided that the faculty having 
failed, the only hope for the father lay in the filial 
instincts of the son. He, the son, must sacrifice his 
own flesh to save his father's life. It is delightfully 
easy to prompt others to acts of self-sacrifice. In this 
case the youth, whether he liked it or not, was 
immolated upon the altar of filial piety 3 an4 had 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 129 

patiently to endure while a piece of flesh was cut out 
of his left arm ; this was afterwards cooked into a 
savoury meal, with accompaniments, and administered 
to the patient as the infallible remedy. Either in 
spite of the treatment, or in consequence thereof, the 
unfortunate patient succumbed. Yet even now the 
faith of the relatives was not disturbed ; the principle 
was sound, therefore the instrument must be faulty ; 
the lad was surely lacking in purity of motive — his 
filial piety must be deficient. And so the poor boy 
had not only his father's death and a bad arm to 
grieve over, but was looked askance at by uncles and 
cousins as a sad instance of filial disobedience ! 
Truly he merited our sympathy." 

At the time of which we write there was not in 
Hankow or its neighbourhood any foreign medical 
lady to treat diseases of women, and render to them, 
in times of special need, that help without which 
lives are so often sacrificed in China. 

But the fame of Dr. Mackenzie had spread through 
the city, and in cases of extreme need he was not 
unfrequently summoned to attend women in their 
own homes. 

On not a few occasions he was the means of saving 
life, if the invalid and her friends were willing that 
she should submit to treatment ; but more commonly, 
the Doctor writes, when the trouble has been taken to 
hasten to such cases of emergency, the patient refuses 
to accept the proffered help. In the majority of 
instances the people expect a cure to be effected by 

9 



130 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

examination of the tongue and pulse, and by the 
swallowing of medicine, which they will take ad 
libitum. 

In one case in which relief could have been speedily 
effected, after having sent for the Doctor in great haste, 
the patient suddenly took fright and refused all assist- 
ance ; she was seconded by her female attendants, and 
the husband, though he was told that if nothing was 
done for her it would cost his wife her life, helplessly 
replied, " She won't have it, she is unwilling — I can't 
persuade her ; " and one of the women remarked, " She 
prefers to die." 

This is only one among many instances of Chinese 
regard for foreign medical skill, combined with marked 
prejudice against active surgical interference on the 
part of a medical man in attendance on native women. 

It was during this year that the first general 
Conference of missionaries was held in Shanghai. 
Though himself unable to leave his work in Hankow 
to attend these gatherings, Dr. Mackenzie was deeply 
interested in them. 

" My wife and I," he writes, "have been delighted 
with the accounts from Mr. and Mrs. John of the 
Conference doings, and were very glad to get Mr. 
John's printed address." 

This reference is to the very striking and helpful 
discourse on " The Holy Spirit in Connection with our 
Work," delivered at the opening of the Conference. 

In his diary, at this time, the Doctor records several 
cases of Christians who had stood firm under severe 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 131 

persecution, and of others who had been enabled tc 
resist temptation when it came to them in the form 
of promises of an easier life if conscientious scruples 
were silenced. 

A boatman who was in the hospital last year, 
suffering from a bad attack of sciatica, became a 
believer in Jesus, and was baptized before his return 
home. 

" At that time a relative of his offered to take him 
into his business— he was a seller of incense. This 
would have saved him from an arduous life, but after 
consulting with Mr. John he refused the offer on 
religious grounds solely. He was beaten by his 
former companions at his village home, but seems 
to be a very earnest Christian. 

" Two men came down recently from a place about 
five miles from Hwang-ching-kow across the lake. 
Both of # them had been badly beaten on account of 
Christianity. The son was one mass of bruises — his 
face literally black and blue, a wound on the scalp, 
and one deep one on his leg. These were inflicted 
with a pointed spear. Some desperate fellows had 
attacked the family on account of their faith, and told 
them they must be off with their foreign religion to 
a foreign land. They had beaten the Christian's wife 
and child, and his old father, over seventy years of age, 
who was not yet baptized. The old man had been 
getting gradually to believe in the Gospel, and now he 
has had a beating on account of it, is anxiously asking 
to be received into the Church. So much forpcrsccu- 



132 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

tion ; it will doubtless sift the Church, but will always 
lead to its true prosperity." 

Another case from Hwang-ching-kow was that of 
a man who, at the time of the Doctor's visit to that 
place, had seemed very proud, full of conceit, and 
averse to foreigners. His wife became seriously ill, 
and he then bethought himself of the foreign doctor, 
and brought her into Hankow for medical treatment. 
They had to remain in the hospital for several weeks ; 
during which time they became much interested in 
the gospel. Later on, the man brought down his old 
mother, who was suffering from sciatica, for treatment, 
an'd during this second visit was baptized upon a 
profession of faith in Christ. 

As an instance of Chinese generosity, Dr. Mackenzie 
mentions the case of a paralytic beggar ; to explain 
which it should be stated that in the management of 
Mission Hospitals in China it has been found abso- 
lutely necessary to limit the number of cases supported 
out of the general funds. He was told that he could 
not be taken in, as he had no money with which to 
support himself while under treatment. The other 
patients, however, hearing of the man's need, clubbed 
together, and agreed to pay for his food while he 
remained in the hospital. 

Towards the end of the summer a serious explosion 
occurred at a gunpowder magazine in the neighbour- 
ing city of Wuchang, and Dr. Mackei de's assistance 
was sought. The roof of the building had been partly 
carried away by the force of the explosion. 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 133 

" I was much struck by the inhumanity inherent in 
the Chinese nature," he writes ; " the people stood 
around, looking with utter indifference upon the 
sufferers. They showed no willingness to help, and 
expressed no sympathy ; would perform no disagree- 
able office, or put themselves to any trouble." 

Some of the sufferers, with terrible burns over face, 
neck, and extremities, were removed to the Hankow 
hospital, where their agonizing pain had to be relieved 
by constant sedatives. 

" I have been giving you incidents in connection 
with the hospital, because I have no news. My life 
is the same every day — regular work, which is very 
enjoyable, but not abounding in incident or change. 
I scarcely hear a single item of English news except 
medical, so that you must not expect letters of deep 
interest." 

About the same time the Doctor was called in to 
see a lad in Wuchang who had been bitten by a dog 
supposed to be mad. The animal had injured five or 
six persons beside. The child was bitten in the right 
cheek and hand ; he died of hydrophobia some days 
after. 

Early in the year Dr. Mackenzie had written, in a 
spirit of deep thankfulness, that all his native assistants 
in the hospital were earnest workers for Christ. The 
native preacher, he says, who has the special duty of 
attending to the spiritual teaching of the patients, is 
growing daily in suitability for the work. The others 
also give valuable aid in the religious department, 



134 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

and even the coolie manifests great delight when 
he sees patients show any interest in the gospel 
message. 

Later on he writes : " I constantly find Lieu, our 
hospital cook, supporting the patients who are unable 
to help themselves, out of his own pocket while they 
are being treated in the hospital. He was formerly 
a carpenter, and, before he became a Christian, a very 
lawless evil liver and an opium smoker. Yet at his 
conversion these sins, with every other, were just swept 
away. He is continually bringing his old companions 
as patients to the hospital, and will constantly pay 
for their support if they are unable to do so, though 
he is only a poor man himself." 

Towards the end of this year two native Christians 
died in the wards of the hospital, both, up to the last 
moments of consciousness, witnessing a good confession, 
and peacefully falling asleep in Jesus. 

The first of these was a man of the name of Wang, 
a cloth dealer in Hankow ; he had been a member of 
the Church for about a year, and was a very consistent 
Christian. " Once in a church meeting," writes the 
Doctor, " he stated what a difference had come over his 
home since he became a believer in Jesus. ' Before 
this,' he said, • whenever I came home there was 
quarrelling and unhappiness — no rest at all ; now 
all is changed. My wife is happy and bright, and all 
is comfort and peace.' " 

He had been suffering from dysentery for two 
months, and was in an extremely weak condition when 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 135 

he applied for admission into the hospital. He im- 
proved a little at first, but had a relapse afterwards, 
and died suddenly. 

When he was .dying, and unable to speak, our 
hospital assistant, Lieu, spoke to him very tenderly 
of his hope in Christ, and asked him if he still had 
faith that Christ had saved him, and whether he had 
peace in this knowledge. Wang was unable to answer, 
but nodded his head in affirmation. Lieu also asked 
him if he had any fear at all, when he shook his head 
in the negative ; and so this Chinese Christian died 
firm in faith and rest in his Saviour. 

Another man of the name of Shun, who was also 
in the hospital with dysentery, died shortly afterwards. 
Whenever he was asked as to his state of mind he 
always replied that his heart was at peace, trusting 
in Jesus. He was told that life and death were in 
God's hands when his recovery seemed unlikely. 
" Yes," he replied, " and I only desire that God's 
will shall be accomplished." The converts cared for 
him most tenderly, and grieved much over his loss, 
especially his own intimate friends, many of whom 
he had been the means of bringing to Jesus, while 
they looked up to him as a guide, and felt that his 
consistent life was a helpful example for them. 

In a home letter of this period Dr. Mackenzie 
mentions an interesting and successful operation he 
had performed on a young man belonging to a 
wealthy family of tea-growers, living at a consider- 
able distance from Hankow. While in the hospital 



136 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

the lad was visited by his old father and two other 
relatives, who became much interested in the gospel, 
and carried away to their far-off home a copy of the 
Scriptures and several other Christian books. " These 
wealthier men," the Doctor adds, " are very difficult to 
reach, as they would not condescend to enter our 
preaching chapels. May the Spirit of God move 
those who have in any way come under instruction ! " 

He mentions also the case of a man named Lieu- 
ku-fang of Hwang-ching-kow, who had been in the 
hospital, and was returning home cured. He had 
been a Christian for some time, and used constantly 
to speak of Jesus and His love to his fellow-patients. 
One among them, an intelligent man, with some 
knowledge of character, replied to Lieu's words by 
remarking that the preaching about God was very 
good, but he did not see how people could be 
expected to believe in Jesus Christ. To this the 
Christian Lieu replied that the doctrines of Confucius 
taught of one true spirit, and spoke of the need of 
righteousness in men's lives ; but no one knew any- 
thing about this true spirit, or saw the righteousness 
exemplified in real life. But Christianity taught that 
Jesus manifested to us God our Father and Creator, 
so that we might know Him ; that Jesus lived in this 
world as our Example, and has sent the Holy Spirit 
to move and work in our hearts, teaching us to do 
God's will. 

At about this time Dr. Mackenzie was called in to 
a case of attempted suicide under specially distressing 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 137 

circumstances. The patient was a lad of seventeen, 
highly endowed with many natural gifts, and full of 
life and energy. He belonged to a Christian family, 
and had of late been the cause of much anxiety to his 
friends by his association with men of bad character. 
He became deeply involved in difficulties, and not 
being of a strong constitution, a severe cold which he 
took led to inflammation of the windpipe. Rendered 
miserable by his past folly, and feeling wretched on 
account of present suffering, he attempted to commit 
suicide by swallowing opium. When the Doctor 
arrived at his uncle's house, where he lived, in re- 
sponse to an urgent summons, he found him perfectly 
unconscious, breathing with extreme difficulty, and 
the pulse very weak and feeble. To ease the difficult 
breathing, which seems to have been the most serious 
symptom, Dr. Mackenzie opened the windpipe, and 
inserted a silver tube, giving immediate relief. The 
lad remained in a state of unconsciousness for two 
days, but eventually made a good recovery.. At any 
rate for a time young Shun profited by his serious 
illness, and a decided improvement in his mode of 
life followed upon his restoration to health. He after- 
wards, in token of gratitude, presented the Doctor 
with a pair of scrolls, upon which was inscribed in 
picturesque hieroglyphics the donor's indebtedness 
" to the skilful hand which had brought him back 
from the gates of death." 

This case attracted much attention among the 
Chinese, who had never seen or heard of this opera- 



138 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

tion before, and it gave them a higher idea than ever 
of the wonders that could be wrought by foreign 
surgical skill. Not long after, Dr. Mackenzie was 
sent for in hot haste to attend a case of opium 
poisoning, and he was urgently requested to be sure 
and bring with him the tube for making two mouths ! 

Writing to his mother in August 1877 the Doctor 
says : — 

" I have just finished reading the Life of Bishop 
Patteson, the first Missionary Bishop to the Melane- 
sians. What a noble life ! You should get the book 
if you have not already read it ; Foster got it from 
England, and sent it up to us. It is written by his 
cousin Charlotte Yonge, a religious writer of some 
note, and is free from the strong colouring which 
makes so many religious lives one-sided and untrue. 
The character of the man and of his work is put 
before you in his letters, which always breathe such 
a true Christian humility, and upon the testimony of 
co-workers. The early life at Eton and Oxford is 
devoid of interest for me, and made me think I should 
not enjoy the book ; but once the missionary prospect 
opens before him, all the many noble features of his 
character come out into full play, and you see rising 
up to your view one of the most unselfish heroes of 
modern Christian days. Beautiful life, lived to the 
glory of God ! 

" I have just been attending a class which Mr. John 
holds for the native assistants and others, to teach a 
more complete knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 139 

To-day the subject was f Our Lord's teaching in 
regard to prayer ; ' last week it was ' Our Lord's 
example in regard to prayer.' These meetings are 
very enjoyable ; we turn from passage to passage — in 
fact, it is a Bible reading in Chinese. John puts 
questions upon the points that come up, and the 
members make remarks as they like, while keeping to 
the point under discussion. I attended the class with 
the object of enlarging my vocabulary, which is a very 
small one, but I now enjoy the meeting for itself as 
much as any one. I am as fond of hearing a sermon 
in Chinese as in English, or even more so, though 
now I have but few opportunities of listening to 
English preaching. But to go back to the class, 
John took advantage of the subject being on prayer, 
to say a few practical things about the length of 
prayers. 

" You know that in all Christian churches all over 
the world public prayer is made too much of a task. 
A man prays for nearly a quarter of an hour, and in 
that time goes nearly all over the world. Moody did 
a great deal to alter this state of things amongst 
many earnest men in England and America, but no 
doubt it prevails still very largely, and, as a conse- 
quence, it becomes a deadener to all real enjoyment 
of prayer-meetings, and is probably a prominent 
reason why so few prayer-meetings are a success. 
We want in our meetings to have short, pointed 
prayers, asking for what we are prepared to receive, 
and so give opportunity to many to join in supplica- 



140 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



tion ; thus bringing about an interest on the part 
of many, and utilizing this very valuable means of 
grace." 

In a letter written two months later the Doctor 
says : — 

" Since you heard last from us I have been on 
a journey of a week to Hiau-kan, the scene of our 
old troubles. On Friday last, at eight o'clock in the 
morning, Mr. John and myself left the precincts of 
Western civilization in a small boat, with two coolies 
to carry our bedding, and two portmanteaus contain- 
ing a few articles of clothing, books for sale, and food 
to support life. We had found on previous visits to 
Hiau-kan that once you leave the banks of a stream, 
with towns within easy reach, and strike across country, 
the food to be obtained is almost uneatable to us 
foreigners, even though we are bent on roughing it. 
We had therefore provided our own food. Millie had 
cooked some corned beef very nicely, and what with 
bread, butter, puddings, and cakes, we had a splendid 
supply for a week's journey. What a joy it is to 
have a dear wife to look after you ! Millie is a 
splendid housekeeper, and makes the house and 
surroundings look as pretty as any in the place. 

"Well, with a fair wind we made rapid progress, 
and reached our extreme point by water at 5 p.m. 
the same day ; a journey, by the way, that sometimes 
takes two days. As we were going to sleep in our 
small boat, we avoided the landing-place, and anchored 
opposite some open land, but were soon found out by 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 141 

a large crowd, and Mr. John preached to them for a 
short time until it was getting dusk. We then had 
a meal, and settled ourselves for the night, spreading 
our bedding at the bottom of the boat under a 
bamboo cover, open to the air at one end. There 
was just room to lie side by side, though it was a 
close fit ! In the morning we landed at six o'clock 
at the village called Peh-ching-tswei, not marked, 
I am afraid, even on Keith Johnston's maps. We 
paid our boatmen, our coolies shouldered our pack- 
ages, and away we tramped across the open country, 
enjoying the brisk morning air. 

" The paths are all on the top of mud banks, which 
serve to divide the fields, and at the same time afford 
passage to travellers. There are no hedges, and the 
fields in the distance look like one large common. 
The paths being narrow, you are compelled to walk 
single file, and so the Chinese can carry out their 
favourite rule of elders always walking in front of 
juniors. 

" Getting on for nine o'clock we came to a pretty 
spot on the top of a hill, the grave of a Han-lin, or 
member of the Imperial Academy, the highest degree 
to which a scholar attains by examination. There 
are very few of them, and the honour is considered 
very great. There is no extensive growth of wood in 
these parts, though every hamlet has a few trees about 
the houses to act as a shade in summer. 

" This grave we chose as our camping-place for 
breakfast. It was an oval place, marked out by trees ; 



142 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

a mound of earth was raised over the grave in the 
centre of the open space, and in front a large stone 
tablet recording the rank and doings of the great 
man, whose birthplace was in one of the adjoining 
villages. He had been Governor of Chihli Province, 
a predecessor of the present Chinese statesman, Li 
Hung Chang. 

" Under the shade of the trees, for the sun was now 
getting strong, we took our meal. The hot water 
which we purchased from a neighbouring cottage 
was our only drawback, for besides being thick with 
mud, it was topped with a coating of grease. 

" But when one has had a sharp walk before 
breakfast he is not inclined to look too closely at his 
refreshments, so we partook of it all with enjoyment. 
Having again started, we commenced work, preaching 
and selling books in the larger villages and small 
market towns through which we passed. Towards 
afternoon we reached our destination, the Wei-chia- 
wan, or village of the Wei family. We found all the 
converts well and happy. Of course we had no rest 
till a late hour, from the people coming from other 
villages to stare at us. So we sat on benches on the 
village green, and talked to them till we were tired ; 
but they took longer to weary of staring than we did 
of speaking. Tell Alec if he wants to be the centre of 
attraction— to see crowds of his fellow-creatures travel- 
ling for miles to have the privilege of looking at and 
being near him — he had better come out to China at 
once as the simplest way to gain popularity. But I 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 143 

am sadly afraid such popularity won't last long, for 
after a few days' residence our star began to fade, and 
we became ordinary mortals after all. 

" But one has got first to learn not to mind being 
stared at. I have got somewhat used to it now, and 
can eat my meals in perfect comfort under the gaze 
of many eyes. My only objection is when they come 
so near as to trouble my olfactory organs. 

" The day after our arrival at Wei's village was 
Sunday, so in the morning we had service. It was 
not so quiet as we could have wished, since it was 
quite impossible to keep the curious crowd out of the 
small room. Mr. John baptized six women and four 
children, all relatives of the converts." 

Many other villages were visited on the next day, 
and in the evening, the Doctor mentions, a very help- 
ful service was held for the Christians, when Mr. John 
gave an address on the True Vine. Next day they 
crossed the country to Wei-chia-wan, preaching all 
along the way. " Here," writes the Doctor, " we found 
a family of converts very bright and happy, the old 
grandfather of seventy-three telling us that Jesus was 
in his thoughts every moment, and that he was looking 
forward to going to be with Him. Another family 
was not so promising ; the head of the house had got 
into a dispute about some land, and was cherishing a 
very bitter spirit against all mankind. Another man 
had long desired to be baptized, but he had been a 
leader in the getting up of dragon and other proces- 
sions, and felt it difficult to take the decisive step. 



144 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Our arrival induced him to think more earnestly 
about the hindrances to his public profession of faith 
in Jesus. He was much moved, and confessed his 
entire belief in Christ, bringing us, before we left, an 
image of the Goddess of Mercy, which had been in his 
family for many generations ; also the kitchen god, and 
finally the ancestral tablets ; and he and his little son 
were baptized before the villagers. Next morning we 
had prayers at 5 a.m. with the Christians before 
leaving. We had to walk all the way to Peh-ching- 
tswei, as we could not get a boat nearer. 

" We sent our servant on ahead to hire a boat, and 
he got one for five hundred cash ; but when we 
arrived the man in charge of the jetty, seeing that 
we were foreigners, took away the boatman's oar, and 
tried to hinder him from taking us for less than one 
thousand cash, in order that he, the official, might get 
five hundred of it for himself. However, we took 
possession of the boat, and had our packages put on 
board, and then asked the man in charge if he still 
intended to stop the boat, as in that case we should 
put the. responsibility of delaying us upon him. 
Thereupon he let us go after paying one hundred 
cash for jetty dues ; that is, twenty cash in the hun- 
dred, which is what the natives themselves pay. 

"These men in charge of wharves, and such-like 
so-called respectable people, get their living by 
'squeezing,' The so-called gentry in the country 
live upon their wits, delighting in quarrels, that they 
may gain thereby. When they have money they go 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 145 

in for opium-smoking and gambling, and soon lose it 
all. We saw an example of this in Wei's uncle, who 
was once a rich man. He became an opium-smoker, 
and is now keeping up an appearance of respectability, 
though without a cash. He lives by borrowing cash, 
rice, etc., which he never intends to repay. 

" I find that the Chinese spend a large amount of 
money in worshipping their ancestors ; more indeed 
upon the dead than the living. When a child is ill, 
or any calamity befalls the family, they enquire the 
cause of the priests. They are generally told that 
one of their ancestors is suffering some dreadful 
punishment, and that it will require a large expendi- 
ture to set him free. The state of feeling among the 
people compels a man to give the money, however 
much is demanded. Then sometimes in the middle 
of the ceremony the priests will declare that still 
something more must be done, or the suffering 
deceased will go back again into torment. And so 
they go on, till the priests have extracted all the 
money they possibly can. 

" We did not reach Hankow until after 1 1 o'clock 
at night, for on our way we came to an obstruction, 
which quite prevented our boat from going on. It 
was a dam of mud and matting, placed right across 
the stream by the fishermen, so that they might fix 
their mats to it. We had to have a small portion of it 
removed by our own men, sufficient to allow our boat 
to pass through." 

Shortly after his return from this journey, on 

10 



146 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

October 30th, Dr. Mackenzie's heart was gladdened 
by the birth of a little daughter. The child was 
baptized by Mr. John at the usual Chinese Sunday 
service, and was named Margaret Ethel. 

The succeeding winter was an unusually severe one 
in Hankow. Not only was the Han covered with 
thick ice, but the great Yang-tse itself was frozen over 
in parts, and one of the large river steamers had to 
cut a channel for herself in order to reach Hankow. 

Famine prevailed in the northern provinces of 
China, and in Hankow there was also much 
distress. 

" One benevolent society alone," writes the Doctor, 
" has given out as many as one hundred and forty 
coffins to bury people found dead in our streets in 
one day ; and there are many such institutions. 

" In consequence of the unusually severe weather 
some bad cases of frost bite came to the hospital. 
One young girl of nineteen had lost her toes and the 
adjacent skin, leaving the bones protruding ; so I 
amputated her feet, leaving the heels behind, which 
will give her as good walking power as most Chinese 
women possess. 

" I must tell you now of a fresh experience I have 
had in Chinese life and customs. On the first day of 
the Chinese New Year I went with Mr. Bryson to 
see the ceremony of worshipping the Emperor in 
Wuchang. This ceremony is gone through by the 
Viceroy and other high officials, both civil and military, 
who are holding office, Wuchang is the capital of the 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 147 

Hupeh province ; so here you get a good opportunity 
of witnessing this ceremony being carried out. 

" We got up at four o'clock in the morning, and 
started off for the Emperor's temple. During the 
walk through the streets I was struck more than I 
had ever been before by the wonderful hold idolatry 
has upon the mass of the people. The night that 
ushers in the New Year is spent by the Chinese in 
worship. Every house is lit up, and crackers are 
being let of! incessantly, making the night hideous as 
you walk along the dark narrow streets. Through the 
open doors we could see incense and candles burning 
before the family god and ancestral tablet. The 
worship of heaven and earth we had many oppor- 
tunities of seeing. A man would come into the street 
with a small wooden or clay stand, with five holes in 
it ; in the three centre he places sticks of incense, and 
in the outer ones candles. These being ignited, he 
places the stand in the middle of the street before his 
door. He then proceeds to set fire to some paper 
money, which he throws burning into the air. A straw 
mat is then brought out, and he kneels down upon it, 
facing the incense and candles, and knocks his head 
against the ground ; this he repeats about five times, 
and then gets up. His sons, according to age, then 
follow his example, and after letting off crackers they 
go into the house. Within doors there is ancestral 
worship and the worship of the family gods to be gone 
through, and finally the children worship their parents 
by prostrating themselves several times. On the 



148 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

previous day I had visited the Emperor's temple that 
I might examine it by daylight, and so understand 
the ceremony better. 

" The temple is a good specimen of Chinese archi- 
tecture, its exterior making a pretty picture. It is 
approached through two large stone-paved courtyards, 
guarded by huge prison-like doors. The inner court, 
as you near the temple, has three stone platforms 
rising one above the other. Once in the temple you 
find a spacious, lofty building, occupied only by a dais 
and large incense altar ; these are placed opposite the 
great doors of entrance. The platform has three tiers, 
ascended by steps, very rickety from age. On the 
platform is a large arm-chair, or throne I suppose it 
should be called, with a screen at the back. The 
remainder of this large hall is perfectly empty. The 
chair, screen, and dais are all in a terrible state of 
dilapidation. The Chinese officials take care to spend 
very little money upon repairs. 

" On New Year's morning, before the dawn of day, 
guided by our lantern, we made our way through the 
chairs and retainers of the great men, assembled 
around the temple, to one of the doors, where, hidden 
by the darkness, we managed to enter. We had feared 
we might possibly be stopped. Hastening through 
the outer courtyard, we entered the inner one, and con- 
gratulated ourselves upon safely getting through. We 
were not long, however, before a small mandarin and 
a soldier in attendance were sent to take charge of us, 
and see that we did nothing outrageous. They fancy 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 149 

we foreigners are a species of wild man, unguided 
by the laws of propriety, and may at any moment do 
something violent. The hall was increased in size by 
having a mat roof stretching out in front, under which 
depended a great number and variety of gaudy lanterns. 
Soon there was a buzz through the crowd, cushions 
were spread on the ground, and several officials took 
their places. They were dressed in handsome satin 
robes, having broad shoulder pieces worked in gold 
lace, and wore red tasselled hats, surmounted by glass 
buttons. The civil mandarins occupied one side, and 
the military officials the other. In the front line, on 
the east side or place of honour, stood the Viceroy* 
Soon the act of obeisance began. A master of cere- 
monies drawled out the word ' K'wei ' (' Kneel ') ; the 
band struck up some music, and all fell upon their 
knees. 'K'ou t'ou!' he cried, and every head was bent 
low to the ground. The ' K'ou t'ou ' was repeated thrice, 
and then at the word ' Chi ! ' (* Arise ! ') they slowly 
resumed their erect attitude, and stood amid breathless 
silence till the word ' K'wei ' was heard again ; and 
the same profoundly submissive performance is gone 
through a second and third time, making in all the 
well-known three kneelings and nine bendings of the 
head required of every one presented to the Emperor 
of the Middle Kingdom. 

" The clouds were just beginning to break in the 
east when we left the temple and wended our way 
home, with the morning star still shining out clear 
above us." 



ISO JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Later on he writes : " The cholera has broken out 
in Hankow amongst the natives, and I am therefore 
getting some experience of the symptoms of this 
disease, so rarely seen in England, happily for us. 
The first day my attention was drawn to it three men 
were brought to me at the hospital, two of whom 
died in the waiting-room." 

As an instance of the strange cases sometimes met 
with in the midst of dispensary work, Dr. Mackenzie 
relates the following to his brother : — 

" A man came to the hospital the other day from 
the country in a very miserable-looking state. He 
was bent down and breathing badly ; he had suffered 
from asthma for some time, and was making great 
complaint. We sent him away with his medicine, 
and some stramonium leaves for smoking. Two days 
after, he attended among the patients ; when his turn 
came he grew much excited, and looked a different 
man altogether. He began by exclaiming, ' Bless 
God ! there is no doubt He is the true God, for those 
leaves that I smoked have taken away my asthma. 
I am not going to worship idols any more ; they are 
no good, I shall henceforth worship your God.' He 
continued in this strain for some time. Stramonium 
acts like a charm in some forms of asthma, and it 
had no doubt done so in this case. He was at the 
hospital again to-day, repeating the same thing. 
When he first came he seemed to have no mental 
faculties at all, but upon questioning him to-day I 
found he knew a good deal of the gospel. I am 



MEDICAL MISSION WORK. 151 

inclined to think, however, that his smoking the 
leaves has much to do with this sudden interest in 
the gospel. 

"We have been on a visit to the lakes for a few 
days. I have been rather pulled down in health, and 
felt I must get a change. The Wu Shen Miau doctor 
and his wife accompanied us. We hired a boat with 
two cabins, and as we were able to stand upright in 
them, did very well. Our crew consisted of three 
men and a woman. After sailing for a day and a 
half, we came to scenery that was far beyond our 
expectations. We had entered a broad expanse of 
water, surrounded by hills covered with trees. At the 
foot of several of these hills were beaches of sand, 
stones, and shells, with large rocks interspersed about. 
We could almost fancy ourselves at an English 
watering-place, with the sea beating upon the beach. 

" We spent the days in wandering about the hills 
and beaches. Little Maggie enjoyed it finely. One 
especial luxury, too, was to find the population here 
very sparse — only a few cottages dotted about. So 
we were able to wander for miles without crowds 
following at our heels, even though there were ladies 
with us. The trip did us all good, and we returned to 
Hankow invigorated." 



CHAPTER VIII. 
CHANGES— A NORTHERN HOME. 



Changes— Offers for Chung-king— Curious Case— Summer 
Floods — Appointed to Tien-tsin — An Ice-bound Port — 
Good-bye to Hankow — Parting Gifts and Good Wishes— 
A Chinese Sinologue — A Mandarin's Family — The 
Harbour of Chefoo — Taku Bar — A Reminiscence of the 
Attack on the Forts — A Desert Land — First Impressions 
of Tien-tsin — Improved Chinese Singing — Cart Travelling 
in China — On the Way to the Capital — The Walls of 
Peking — The Imperial City — The Manchu City — The 
Temple of Heaven — The Lama Temple — Image of 
Buddha — A Praying Machine — " As Old as the Moabite 
Stone " — The Hill of Longevity — Ruins of the Summer 
Palace — Chinese Sunday-schools — The International 
Lesson Series. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
CHANGES— A NORTHERN HOME. 

WE have seen how flourishing and full of promise 
was the work to which the Lord had called 
Dr. Mackenzie in Hankow, and how blessed were 
its results, both physically and spiritually ; so that 
to most eyes it seemed as if a future of happy and 
successful labour lay before him in the field which 
he had chosen. 

But God's ways are not as our ways, and not 
unfrequently we see a man's whole life entirely 
altered by an apparently inexplicable train of 
events. 

Sometimes, even to the Lord's own children, when 
such changes come it seems as if there had been 
some mistake somewhere, as if the Master's will 
must have been thwarted and His purposes over- 
thrown. And this we are apt to feel more especially 
when we can put our hands upon some special event, 
some first link in a chain of circumstances, and say, 
If that had not taken place this discipline would 
never have come. 

But surely we have allowed our eyes to grow dim 
i55 



156 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

with the mists of earth when we fail to believe that 
the loving hand of our Father is leading on through 
all the sorrows and mysteries of life, overruling its 
heaviest trials for His own far-reaching purposes, and 
making all work up smoothly and well into the web 
of His providence. Very frequently when changes 
come we have to trust, believing simply that what we 
know not now we shall know hereafter. Sometimes, 
however, God's Fatherly heart allows His perplexed 
children to see, even in this world, how He can " turn 
life's sore riddle to our good." Not only does He 
show us how character is strengthened and purified, 
and the heart drawn into closer and brighter com- 
munion with its Saviour through fiery trials, but 
occasionally even lets us see how His plan of a 
man's life is far nobler and higher than ours can 
ever be ; how He casts down that He may build up 
after a more enduring fashion, and makes even our 
disappointments the stepping - stones to higher 
service. 

And so it was with Dr. Mackenzie, for about this 
time circumstances arose, into which it is unadvisable 
to enter, which made the Doctor slowly and unwill- 
ingly, through painful experiences, come to the con- 
clusion that it would be well for him to seek another 
sphere of labour. These circumstances were of a 
family rather than a personal nature ; and although 
the serious failure of his beloved wife's health, which 
shadowed all the later years of his otherwise bright 
and successful career, had not as yet manifested 



CHANGES— A NORTHERN HOME. 157 

itself, he could not but feel that on her account a 
change of station was imperative. 

Accordingly, he wrote as follows to the Directors 
of the London Missionary Society : — 

"I would respectfully ask you to relieve me of my 
duties in Hankow, . . . and appoint me to a new 
field of labour. I believe that while Medical Mis- 
sions are eminently useful in every stage of the work 
in China, they would be more than ever successful in 
pioneering work ; first in gaining the confidence of a 
strange people, and again in acquiring early personal 
acquaintance. As the Directors have taken in hand 
the opening of a mission station in Chung-king-fu, 
and are seeking men for this field, I beg to offer 
myself, after three years' study of the language, to 
go at once and commence work there. I know well 
what difficulties and privations would have to be 
endured, while here we have a comfortable home and 
many friends ; but both Mrs. Mackenzie and I are 
prepared to face these difficulties." 

Some months had necessarily to elapse before the 
Doctor could receive from the Directors an answer 
to his request to be transferred to another station. 
Meanwhile, work in the hospital went on as usual, 
and 1878 being a year of flood there was much sick- 
ness in Hankow, and large crowds attended regularly 
for relief at the dispensary. 

On account of the great lack of surgical knowledge 
in China, patients will often appear at the dispensary 
who have been suffering great pain for years, who, 



158 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

had they come earlier, could easily have been re- 
lieved. One case illustrating this fact occurs in Dr. 
Mackenzie's diary at this time : — 

" A man appeared among the out-patients to-day 
with an abscess, which had opened in the palm of his 
hand near the wrist. 

" Upon examination a foreign body was found lying 
close to the bones of the hand. This was cut down 
upon and removed, and proved to be a piece of iron 
curved and thin. The man explained its presence 
there in the following way. Two years ago he was 
cleaning out a small cannon, and some powder, having 
been left in it, suddenly ignited, discharging this piece 
of iron, which was most likely a piece of the gun itself 
which had scaled off. It entered the inner side of the 
hand, and passing under the tendons lodged there. 

" The wound by which it had entered had healed, 
and left a prominently marked cicatrix. An abscess 
had gradually formed ; but although the man was in 
great pain, nearly two years had elapsed before he 
came to the hospital and had it removed." 

During this summer the floods rose to an unusual 
height ; the roads appeared like canals between the 
houses, and all communication was carried on by 
means of boats ; and the difference between the rise 
and fall of the Yang-tse river, seven hundred miles 
from its mouth, amounted this season to over fifty feet ! 

Towards the end of the year Dr. Mackenzie 
received a letter from the Directors of the London 
Missionary Society appointing him to Tien-tsin. 



CHANGES— A NORTHERN HOME. 159 

They felt unable to comply with his request to 
allow him to proceed to Chung-king and open up 
work in the province of Sze-chuen, because at that 
time they did not consider the place safe as a resid- 
ence for a married man. Soon after this the Doctor 
received a very cordial invitation from the members 
of the Peking Committee of the L. M. S. to come 
and join them, and in addition a private letter from 
the Rev. Jonathan Lees, the senior member of the 
Tien-tsin Mission, warmly welcoming the prospect of 
the additional strength which Dr. Mackenzie would 
bring to the force of the Mission. 

On December 23rd the Doctor wrote to the 
Directors in London : — 

" I thank you, gentlemen, for your resolution 
giving me permission to transfer my services from 
Hankow to Tien-tsin. 

"The Secretary of the District Committee has 
already communicated with the North China Com- 
mittee, and a reply has just been received, in which 
Mr. Lees, on behalf of the Peking Committee, most 
kindly welcomes us to Tien-tsin. I gladly accept 
this invitation, and will leave for the north at the 
first opportunity. With the resolution passed by the 
Board I am perfectly satisfied, and will do my best 
in my new sphere to throw myself as actively into 
work as I have done here." 

But Tien-tsin, the port of the capital, is entirely 
closed to trade during the winter season, being blocked 
up with a solid wall of ice for three months of the 



160 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

year. It was necessary, therefore, for Dr. Mackenzie 
to delay his departure from Hankow till the beginning 
of March, by which time steamers would soon be 
having Shanghai for the northern port. 

During this winter, in the midst of his . active 
labours, Dr. Mackenzie interested himself in the study 
of Chinese history, especially with reference to the 
rise and progress of Roman Catholicism in this great 
land. The story of the earnest labours of the early 
missionaries of the Romish Church seems to have had 
a great attraction for him. 

The last days of their sojourn in Central China 
were spent by the Doctor, his wife, and little daughter 
on the Wuchang side of the river. Dr. Mackenzie 
had endeared himself so much, not only to the Chinese, 
but to a large band of missionary friends, that the 
parting could not help but be a sorrowful one ; yet 
all believed that an unseen Hand was leading him 
onward, although he was leaving a work which, under 
his care, had been so greatly prospered, for a compara- 
tively new and untried field of labour, as far as 
foreign medical work was concerned. 

It was in the midst of a heavy downpour of rain 
that Dr. and Mrs. Mackenzie, with little Maggie, 
crossed the broad Yang-tse for the last time to go 
on board the Shanghai steamer, which lay anchored 
at the Hankow bund. A large company of native 
Christians, as well as many of their foreign friends, 
had assembled, notwithstanding the incessant rain, to 
see them on board and bid them Godspeed on their 



CHANGES— A NORTHERN HOME. 161 

journey. The assistants from the hospital were there, 
with farewell presents of scrolls, recording the Doctor's 
virtues and their grief at losing him. " Our parting 
was quite a trying one," he writes ; " one is much 
drawn out towards these dear native brethren." 

The steamer left Hankow at daybreak next morn- 
ing, and in his diary Dr. Mackenzie gives some account 
of their journey down the river. 

" Bishop Schereschewsky is a fellow-traveller with 
us. He has been visiting the American Episcopal 
Mission in Wuchang after his return from Europe. 
He has done a great work in China in translating 
the Old Testament into Chinese. He is a great 
Hebrew scholar. At breakfast he was telling us of 
his visit up the Yang-tse eighteen years ago with 
Blakiston's party. He considers the population of 
China to have been very greatly exaggerated ; instead 
of four hundred millions, he would say one hundred 
and fifty millions. He would call all the different 
dialects of China one language, excepting, perhaps, 
that of Amoy. He speaks highly of Tien-tsin. 

" We have, as another fellow-passenger, a mandarin, 
who is a Salt Commissioner, with a retinue of twenty 
servants. He has a wife with him, with two female 
attendants. The wife is only No. 3, however ; she is a 
pretty woman, decked out with jewellery. Like our- 
selves, he is on his way to Tien-tsin. 

" We arrived at Shanghai at mid-day on Friday, 6th 
March. All the steamers for the north have already 
started, and not a solitary one remains. However, the 

1 1 



1 62 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

faster ones will be returning shortly, so that our 
detention will not be long. We found Mr. Muirhead 
and Mr. Taylor living together, both the ladies having 
had to return to England on account of ill health. 
Dr. Johnston received us with much kindness, and 
invited a large party of friends to meet us. The 
next evening was spent with Mr. Palmer of the Union 
Church, and we took tiffin with Mr. Laisun. 

" The Pau-tali steamer came in at noon, and was 
advertised to leave the same night, and we took 
passage on her, and I have been very busy getting all 
our numerous packages on board. 

" We had a most delightful voyage. The Pau-tah 
has small passenger accommodation, but Captain 
Patteson, by his great kindness, made the voyage 
altogether enjoyable. We had sent back our amah 
from Shanghai, so we had baby on our hands entirely ; 
but the captain has children of his own, and loves 
little ones, and he nursed and played with Maggie 
finely, so that the little darling got quite to love him, 
and sat by his side at table at each meal as sedately 
as possible. It was fortunate we missed the first rush 
of steamers, or else we should have had a terrible 
time. The wind, it seems, was so high that the waves 
were beating over the decks, and it was so cold that 
the water froze immediately, and left the decks covered 
with ice. They met large masses of ice in the Gulf, 
and four of the steamers, coming in contact with them, 
received such damage that they had to go into dock. 
They were, moreover, detained eight days at Taku 



CHANGES-A NORTHERN HOME. 163 

Bar, and finally had to cut their way through the 
ice. Yet on this second trip not a piece of ice was to 
be seen ; all was spring-like. 

" The Pau-tah stayed at Chefoo for an hour, so I 
went on shore, and saw Dr. Brereton's hospital, and 
had a hurried view of the place itself. What a 
magnificent harbour ! But the land side is locked in 
by a chain of hills from much communication with 
the interior. 

" We reached Taku Bar on the morning of the I2th, 
but had to wait for the evening tide before crossing. 
We were anchored close to the scene of an accident 
which had taken place a few days previously. An 
old P. and O. ship, the Aden, used as a cargo hulk, had 
been anchored there. While unloading into cargo 
lighters the Chinese had carelessly taken goods from 
the lower decks, while the upper decks were still 
full ; the consequence was the Aden toppled over, and 
fifty-one Chinese coolies were drowned. 

" Taku, famous for its forts, and the scene of two 
severe engagements with the Chinese, is situated at 
the entrance of the Pei-ho, the river leading up to 
Tien-tsin, and on to within a few miles of the capital. 
Outside Taku is a bar of sand, and we had to shift 
a good deal of our cargo into lighters before we could 
cross over at high water. We passed the spot where 
two English gunboats, having got too near the forts, 
were riddled by the fire from them, and disabled 
before they could retire. Our captain told us that 
when one of the English gunboats aws lying thus at 



1 64 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

the mercy of the heavy fire from the Chinese forts, 
and losing men in great numbers, an American 
captain lying outside, unable to stand the sight any 
longer, exclaiming, * Blood is thicker than water ! ' 
steamed up to the disabled craft, and receiving the 
fire of the fort upon herself, towed our boat out of 
range. The walls of the two large forts guarding the 
mouth of the river are only made of mud bricks, but 
they are said to possess a good many Krupp guns. 
The Pei~ho is a streamlet by the side of our old friend 
the Yang-tse, only just permitting two steamers to 
pass one another ; and its seven awkward bends before 
reaching Tien-tsin make the distance by water very 
long. 

" How ugly the mud hovels on the banks look ! 
Not that they are worse than those in Hankow, but so 
much more prominent. Tien-tsin has much of the 
desert about it in appearance — grey and sandy. Not 
a blade of grass to be seen anywhere at this season ! 

" The weather in Tien-tsin at the present time is very 
delightful, bracing and vigour-giving. They evidently 
get the heat much later here than on the Yang-tse, 
and I hope and trust milder, for in Hankow it was 
hot when we left in March. I had got to actually 
dread the Hankow summers ; I think four in succession 
were quite enough. The missionaries here all live 
together outside the foreign concession ; the London 
Mission compound is the nearest to the city. The 
compound is extensive, with two Mission houses 
facing the south, separated one from the other by a 



CHANGES— A NORTHERN HOME, 165 

small building used as a college for the training of 
native students. The houses are pretty much alike. 
With ours we are perfectly satisfied, the accommo- 
dation being both sufficient and comfortable. There 
is a graveyard at the back of the Mission compound, 
which is a decided drawback, and the smells coming 
from the direction of the native city are very dis- 
agreeable. 

" We had a very warm reception from Mr. and Mrs. 
Lees, with whom we are staying till settled ; they have 
one little girl with them, the other children are at 
home. Our little darling, whose photograph, I hope 
was finally received, is now running about the house 
bravely, and keeping in capital health." 

In his diary the Doctor writes : — 

" I walked into the city to the native service con- 
ducted in the hospital chapel ; Mr. Lees preached, 
the attendance was small. The singing in this 
church is remarkably good ; I have heard nothing 
in China to equal it. The tunes of Sankey and 
Bliss are sung here as heartily and almost as well as 
amongst foreigners, which is due chiefly to Mr. Lees 
having a first-rate voice for leading singing. After- 
noon service was held in the students' chapel. We 
have Chinese prayers every morning at nine o'clock." 

Shortly after Dr. Mackenzie's arrival in Tien-tsin 
the annual meetings of the District Committee of 
the London Missionary Society were held in Peking. 
The Doctor gives the following account of his visit to 
the capital : — 



1 66 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

" We started on our journey at 9 a.m., and it took 
us two and a half days' cart travelling to reach Peking, 
a distance of eighty miles. These carts are heavy, ugly, 
wooden contrivances, so small that only one person 
can conveniently sit or lie inside, for there is no seat 
except the floor of the cart. If, therefore, two persons 
travel together one has to sit on one shaft in front, 
while the driver occupies the other. The cart wheels 
are of great thickness, iron-bound, and very strongly 
made ; an essential condition for travelling on these 
bad roads. The axle-tree extends fully a foot on 
each side beyond the cart, so that in meeting these 
carts you have to be careful not to come in contact 
with this protruding axle-tree. The interior of a cart 
is about five and a half feet long by three and a half 
feet broad, and the covered part is three and a half 
feet high. Having no springs, and the road being 
frightfully cut up with ruts, the jolting is simply 
awful. We line the interior with our bedding and 
pillows, thus making a soft cushion to lie upon ; but 
to prevent your coming in contact with the sides of 
the cart you have to seize hold of the structure of the 
vehicle itselt to prevent incessant concussions. The 
soil is impregnated with soda in such quantities that 
it is a dusty, grey, soft substance, in dry weather easily 
cut into ruts, and carried about by the wind. There- 
fore, when a slight wind is blowing you are soon 
completely covered with dust, which penetrates your 
clothes and gets into your nostrils and throat. In 
wet weather the roads are pretty nearly impassable ; 



CHANGES— A NORTHERN HOME. 167 

you are ploughing through mud, and getting stuck 
every few minutes. 

" We slept on the way at native inns on brick beds 
called kangs ; these kangs have flues running under 
them. In the winter fires are lit, and the heated 
smoke and air travel through these flues, and thus 
heat it, giving you at least a warm bed to lie upon. 

" In approaching the walls of Peking one sees an 
immense and very strongly-built square tower at one 
angle of the wall, pierced with numberless openings, 
in which apparently cannon are placed, ready to open 
upon any venturesome foe. The cannon, upon further 
approach, prove to be merely painted boards. It is 
said that when the allied troops neared Peking they 
were in a great funk lest they should be cut to pieces 
by these imaginary guns. 

" The streets of Peking are exactly the reverse of 
those in the south ; they are as wide as Old Market 
Street in Bristol. The people pay a great deal of 
attention to the frontage of the shops, the carving 
and gilding being especially fine. Peking is divided 
into three cities, each surrounded by its own walls 
and gates. The Imperial city contains the palaces 
of the Emperor, his wives, and household. None but 
those in attendance, or belonging to the household, are 
allowed to remain within the walls, and no strangers 
are upon any pretext admitted within the gates. 

"Then there is the Tartar, or Manchu city, in 
which the Manchus reside. No Chinese are supposed 
to reside in it, though of late years many have sue- 



1 68 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

ceeded in obtaining dwellings there. You know the 
reigning dynasty is Manchu ; consequently all of this 
race are privileged, and receive small pensions. They 
have degenerated, as would naturally be expected, and 
are now a lazy set of men. Had the Chinese much 
political ambition they could easily, by combination, 
throw off the Manchu yoke. 

" Then there is lastly the Chinese city, in which 
most of the trade is carried on. 

" The whole week was pretty well taken up with 
meetings twice a day. Saturday was free, however, so 
we devoted it to seeing some of the sights of Peking. 

" The Temple of Heaven, probably the sight of 
China, occupied the morning, and was a great treat. 
We got into the first enclosure over the wall ; this is 
an immense park-like place, covered with grass and 
wild flowers, and interspersed are groves of fine trees. 
Within the third enclosure is the covered altar, with 
its great dome, which is finely carved and painted. 

" We were fortunate in gaining admission to the 
1 hau-tien/ a building behind the covered altar con- 
taining the tablet. This tablet is contained in a 
richly-carved cabinet, the door of which being removed, 
and curtains of silk drawn, revealed the inscription, 
four characters in gold on a plain black ground, 
' Hwang Tien Shang-Ti ' (' The Supreme Being of 
the Imperial Heavens '). No idol is to be seen in 
any of the buildings in this temple. We saw the 
slaughter-house, with its floor covered with hair, and 
the porcelain kiln for burning the sacrifices. 



CHANGES-A NORTHERN HOME. 169 

. " The same afternoon we visited the Lama Temple, 
which is said to have 1,500 priests in residence. The 
great Buddha here is ninety feet in height, a huge 
gilded monster, thirty-six feet broad. A lotus plant 
is growing out of its arm, and there are 10,000 small 
images of Buddha in little niches round the gallery. 

" We also saw the praying machine, in which the 
classics revolve and prayers are gone through. At 
the Confucian Temple we saw two drums, nearly 
three thousand years old, covered with poetry in the 
eld seal character. They belong to the Chan dynasty, 
and are as old as the Moabite stone. 

" We went also to the Wan Shen Shan, or Hill of 
Longevity, covered with temples, pagodas, etc., in 
ruins ; they were destroyed at the same time as the 
Summer Palace by the British troops. The Summer 
Palace, which we visited, is in a lamentable state of 
ruin. Destruction has gone on with rapid strides 
far beyond the mischief done by the foreign troops. 
The Chinese, despite the protection of a high wall, 
enter and pull down fine masses of marble and stone 
for the sake of getting the pieces of iron which bind 
these masses together." 

Writing to a friend of different aspects of Mission 
work in Peking the Doctor says : — 

" At Peking there are several Sunday-schools, but 
from what I could see they do not succeed in getting 
the children of converts. Those who have boarding- 
schools of course find it easy to take the children 
in classes on the Sunday. One very capital idea, I 



170 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

think, is that in all the Missions the International 
Sunday-school lessons are used after translation by 
a committee ; they go through the regular series. 

" We started in carts for Tung-chow on our return 
journey on May 1st, at which place we took boats, 
and left immediately for Tien-tsin. We reached home 
at eleven o'clock at night on Saturday the 3rd, having 
taken to carts again and made a forced march, in 
order to be in by Sunday." 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE POWER OF PRAYER. 



An Unpromising Outlook — A Petition to the Viceroy — 
Suspense — A Time of Waiting on God — Importance of 
Studying the Language — The Chinese "Pilgrim's 
Progress " — A Wonderful Answer to Prayer — "Why not 
call in Foreign Doctors ? " — Prescribing under Difficulties 
— A Good Recovery — A Lady Doctor — Foreign Medicine 
becomes Popular — The City Moved — A Trial Operation — 
A Temple Dispensary — Physician to the Viceroy — 
"Unable to Compass the Work" — "Two Hundred 
Patients a Day ! " — A New Hospital Needed — A Chinese 
Subscription List — A Generous Patient — The Work 
Increases — Overworked — Difficulties in Chinese Surgical 
Cases — A Vaccine Establishment — Rumours of War — 
Colonel Gordon's Visit — Conversations with Gordon— The 
Viceroy's Opinion of Christianity — The Chinese in 
California — Dr. Schofield — The New Hospital Opened. 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE POWER OF PRAYER. 

WHEN Dr. Mackenzie reached Tien-tsin the 
prospect, from a Medical Mission point of 
view, looked by no means bright. 

In the year i860 the surgeons attached to the 
British forces quartered in that city had conducted 
an hospital for native practice, which was the means 
of extensive usefulness. On the departure of the 
troops, however, the institution which they had 
originated was closed, and though several attempts 
were made to supply its place, nothing was in reality 
effected till the year 1869. 

At that time Mr. Lees was enabled, by the kind 
contributions of the Tien-tsin foreign community, to 
rent a house in one of the principal thoroughfares 
of the city, and engage a native dispenser from the 
Peking hospital to take charge of it. 

Much good work was done during the ten years 
that elapsed before Dr. Mackenzie's arrival in Tien-tsin 
Mr. Pai, the Chinese dispenser, was a Christian, and a 
man who had gained considerable practical acquaint- 
ance with disease and its treatment under Dr. Dudgeon 

i73 



174 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

of Peking, prior to his taking charge of the Tien-tsin 
hospital, and from time to time Dr. Frazer willingly 
rendered valuable help. 

But when Dr. Mackenzie reached this station he 
found the institution destitute of funds for carrying 
on its benevolent work. In a letter to a friend he 
describes the state of things. 

" Mr. Pai had no money to buy foreign drugs, and 
was treating his patients pretty much after the native 
fashion. In the January previous to our arrival Mr. 
Lees had made a collection, the usual annual one 
among the foreign residents in aid of the dispensary. 
But the amount of contributions received failed to 
pay off the outstanding debt up to the end of 1878, 
leaving the expenses for 1879 and this balance from 
1878 still unmet. Such was the state of things when 
I arrived in March — no money and no foreign drugs. 
At our Committee meeting held in Peking at the 
end of April, a resolution was passed asking the 
Directors to grant me money for drugs ; but this 
supply could not reach me for at least five months. 
What was I to do in the interval ? The first thing- 
was to set to work at the language, and pass my third 
examination ; this I did in May last. But though I 
could help in the directly evangelistic work of the 
Mission, I felt as if my vocation was neglected unless 
I was engaged in some medical practice. We prayed 
much about it — not ourselves alone, but Mr. Lees 
and other brethren. It was a time of great spiritual 
blessing to me personally ; I was brought to feel 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 175 

that there was no help in man, but that God would 
open a way. 

a In thinking over many plans, it was suggested, I 
believe by my dear friend Mr. Lees, that we should 
draw up a petition to the Viceroy, setting forth the 
advantages of establishing an hospital for the benefit 
of the Chinese, telling him what had been done else- 
where in medical missionary enterprise, and soliciting 
his aid. 

" We hoped that by clearly showing him the terribly 
neglected state of the city, with its numerous accidents 
and prevalent sicknesses, we might move him, or 
rather God might move him, and incline his heart 
to help us with funds." 

A memorial was drawn up in Chinese, and through 
the courtesy of a consular friend, W. N. Pethick, Esq., 
was presented directly to the Viceroy, with many 
kindly words of support. 

The Viceroy here referred to is His Excellency Li 
Hung-Chang, the well-known ruler of the metropolitan 
province, and one of the guardians of the young 
Emperor while under age. 

"It is he who negotiates treaties with foreign 
powers," writes the Doctor ; " he orders ironclads 
from England and Krupp's heavy guns from Germany. 
He has almost despotic power in the enormous 
region which he governs, and is looked upon as one 
of the most astute and enlightened of Chinese states- 
men, as he is the most powerful, and at the present 
time is the hope of the party of progress." " 



176 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

The memorial was sent in to this statesman about 
the middle of May, but was set aside with the brief 
comment that the object was a very good one and 
he would consider it. 

On July 31st Dr. Mackenzie makes the following 
entry in his diary : " The last two months have been 
a time of great anxiety, expecting and hoping, but 
getting no answer from the yamen. It has been a 
great time of waiting upon God." 

In a letter to a friend he says : " June passed away 
and July came to a close, and yet not a word of reply 
came from the Viceroy, until we began to think that 
truly the matter had been shelved and we were to 
hear nothing more about it. We were more than 
ever thrown back upon God. I had meanwhile com- 
menced to attend at the dispensary and dispense a 
few foreign drugs, obtained at our own cost from 
Shanghai ; but very few patients came. I never 
had more than twenty in a day. Why I hardly 
know, except the general belief of foreigners that 
the Tien-tsin people are so anti-foreign." 

This time of suspense was fruitful in another 
direction. In July the Doctor writes : — 

" During the last few months I have spent much 
time in the study of the language ; although both 
at Hankow and Tien-tsin mandarin is spoken, yet 
the local differences of dialect are very considerable, 
and the tones especially are upside down. These 
difficulties, during the few months I have been 
here, by constant reading with teachers I have, in 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 177 

a measure, overcome ; and, what is of even more 
value, I have obtained a command of the language 
which I never had before, small even as at present 
it is. As a medical missionary in China can do 
comparatively little without a knowledge of the 
language, the extra time thus placed at my 
disposal is invaluable. Since coming here I have 
read through the ' Great Learning ' and the first 
volume of the ( Analects of Confucius.' I am now 
reading through, to correct the differences in the 
tones, the ' Pilgrim's Progress,' as translated by 
William Burns. It is a splendidly correct and very 
simple translation into mandarin. How fresh and 
bright this remarkable book is in its Chinese dress ! " 

At last the weary time of waiting came to an end. 
By another reference to what Tennyson calls " those ■ 
fallen leaves that keep their green, the noble letters of 
the dead," we find the Doctor thus gratefully relating 
the story of how God, in His lovingkindness, answered, 
in a wonderful and totally unexpected fashion, his 
servants' continued prayers. 

"It was August 1st, and the day of our weekly 
prayer-meeting, when the missionaries and native 
helpers meet for prayer and consultation. Our sub- 
ject that morning was the words of our Lord, ' Ask, 
and it SHALL be given you.' And again we pleaded 
for an answer to the memorial, and that God would 
remember our Medical Mission needs. While we were 
praying the Lord was already answering. That same 
morning a member of the English Legation, closeted 

12. 



178 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

with the Viceroy, observed that he was very sad. On 
asking the reason, the reply was, ' My wife is seriously 
ill — dying ; the doctors have told me this morning she 
cannot live.' ' Well,' said the Englishman, ' why don't 
you get the help of the foreign doctors in Tien-tsin ? 
they might be able to do something even yet.' At 
first the Viceroy objected that it would be quite 
impossible for a Chinese lady of rank to be attended 
by a foreigner ; but by-and-bye his own good sense, 
led by God's Spirit, triumphed, and he sent down 
a courier to the foreign settlement for Dr. Irwin 
and for me. It was just as our prayer-meeting was 
breaking up that the courier arrived with his message. 
Here was the answer to our prayers ! " 

The doctors, accompanied by Mr. Pethick, rode up 
at once to the yamen of the Viceroy. After an inter- 
view with His Excellency, v/ho is deeply attached to 
his wife, and in her serious illness had practically 
suspended all public business, they were conducted 
into the inner apartments, and there saw the sick 
lady. This, to Western ideas, would be considered a 
very natural and ordinary occurrence ; but according 
to Chinese notions it was a very extraordinary 
proceeding. 

" Three years ago," writes Dr. Mackenzie, " while in 
Hankow I was called in to attend a sick lady, the 
wife of a merchant, but was not allowed to see her 
face. A hole was made in a curtain, through which 
her arm was protruded, that I might examine her 
pulse and so diagnose the disease, In this case we 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 179 



two foreign doctors had free permission to examine 
and question our patient, who was the wife of the 
leading Viceroy of the Empire." 

They found the lady very ill — in a most critical 
condition, and at first do not seem to have been 
hopeful of a successful issue. 

It was necessary for Dr. Mackenzie to come down 
to the settlement for medicines, and upon his return 
home he found a number of Christian natives in his 
colleague's study, earnestly talking over the wonderful 
event of the day. " What chance was there of Lady 
Li's recovery ? " was the eager enquiry from all ; but 
the Doctor could give no very hopeful reply. " She is 
very ill ; I fear there is not much hope/' he said, " but 
you must just keep on praying." 

He returned to his illustrious patient, and remained 
in the yamen all night, to enable the Viceroy, whose 
anxiety was now somewhat allayed, to get some 
needed sleep. 

"We were in close attendance, seeing our patient 
twice a day for six days," writes the Doctor, " when, 
by the mercy of God, the lady was, humanly speaking, 
out of danger." 

Dr. Mackenzie's colleague well remembers how, on 
his return from the yamen, in reply to his interested 
enquiries about the case, he replied, " Yes, she is re- 
covering, she will do well now ; but it is the result of no 
skill of mine, it is just God answering our prayers ! " 

" It became necessary for the patient's complete 
restoration to health," continues the Doctor, " to adopt 



180 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

a certain line of treatment, which, according to Chinese 
etiquette, could only be carried out by a lady. We 
therefore informed the Viceroy that at Peking (two 
days' journey off) there was an American lady doctor 
working in connection with the Methodist Episcopal 
Mission, Miss Howard, M.D., and enquired if there 
would be any objection to a foreign lady carrying out 
our suggested treatment. 'None whatever!' was his 
reply." 

That day a special messenger was despatched to 
invite Miss Dr. Howard to come to Tien-tsin, the 
Viceroy, at the same time, sending his own steam 
launch to convey her from Tung-chow. 

Apartments within the Chinese palace were pre- 
pared for her, and here, upon the lady's arrival, she 
took up her abode, remaining in the yamen for a 
month, and was able to render invaluable assistance 
in the case. 

"If you will try and realize the conditions of an 
Eastern city," writes the Doctor, " you will quickly 
understand that when a great potentate takes you by 
the hand the land is all before you. 

" So we found that in our daily visits to our noble 
patient our steps were thronged with eager sup- 
pliants, who, hearing that the Viceroy's wife was 
undergoing medical treatment, sought for relief from 
the same source. You know how a story often grows 
as it spreads, and so this case of cure was being 
magnified into a miracle of healing. 

A Chinese official residence is composed of numer- 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 181 

ous quadrangles, one behind the other, with buildings 
and gateways surrounding each. To reach the family 
apartments we had to pass through these numerous 
courts, and here we were beset with patients from the 
crowds assembled outside the gates, and the friends of 
the soldiers, door-keepers, secretaries and attendants 
who had succeeded in gaining an entrance. The 
poor also besieged us as we entered and left the 
yamen. It was truly a strange gathering we found 
daily collected round the outer gates — the halt, the 
blind, and the deaf were all there waiting to be 
healed ; indeed, the whole city seemed to be moved. 
High officials sought introductions to us through 
the Viceroy himself. 

" We had many opportunities of conversation with 
the Viceroy and other officials, whom we were daily 
meeting at the yamen ; and I trust our conduct was 
such as to give them a right impression with regard 
to missionaries and their work ; for certainly, with 
the exception of His Excellency, who is remarkable 
among Chinese for his breadth of view and friendly 
feeling towards foreigners, few seem to understand 
the purpose and object of the missionary's life. 

"One day Dr. Irwin and I proposed that the Viceroy 
should himself see a surgical operation performed. 
Upon his consenting, we turned the courtyard in 
front of his audience chamber into an operating 
theatre. It is a large open space, surrounded on three 
sides by buildings, the central one being the grand 
reception room, where ministers from foreign countries 



ifc JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

have their interviews with the Viceroy. On the 
fourth side the wall is covered with creeping plants, 
while ornamental shrubs in pots are placed about the 
yard. Li Hung Chang stood looking on, and sur- 
rounding him was a crowd of officials and attendants, 
attracted by curiosity. His appearance is that of a 
man born to rule ; he is six feet two inches in height, 
with a truly commanding figure, and a calm, powerful 
face. In the centre of the court was a table, upon 
which lay our patient, with a large tumour, the size of 
a child's head, growing from the back of his neck. 
We administered chloroform and removed the tumour, 
of course without the man feeling any pain during 
the process. 

" Two other cases were also operated upon, one 
patient having a hare-lip, the other a malignant 
tumour. All these cases did well ; wherein again we 
see the hand of God helping us. The effect upon 
the Viceroy and officials was marked. It was evi- 
dent to them that crowds of people were waiting to 
be healed, and that in Western medicine there were 
possibilities quite beyond the reach of the Chinese 
faculty. This led to the Viceroy placing a room 
outside the gates of the yamen at my disposal for 
dispensary work. Here I saw cases daily, but the 
crowds became so great as to impede the business of 
the yamen, and therefore His Excellency set apart an 
entire quadrangle of the temple to Tseng Kwoh-fan, 
one of the finest buildings in Tien-tsin, for dispensary 
work, and, if necessary, for the reception of in-patients. 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 183 

" Shortly after the work had been started in the 
temple, the Viceroy put up a tablet over the entrance, 
with his three titles inscribed upon it, and beneath 
them the words ' Free Hospital.' The Viceroy at the 
same time handed me tls. 200 to purchase drugs for 
immediate use, and gave me a commission, appointing 
me, with Dr. Irwin, medical attendant upon his family 
and yamen, and a separate authorization to establish 
and superintend the free hospital at the temple. 

" In thus giving me the use of his name and taking 
upon himself the support of the work, His Excellency 
knows I am a Christian missionary and will make 
use of every opportunity for the furtherance of the 
gospel. An evangelist of Mr. Lees' preaches regularly 
to the assembled patients." 

In another letter Dr. Mackenzie explains the 
Viceroy's action in supplying him with money to 
purchase drugs and instruments for the hospital ; and 
with reference to his appointment as physician to the 
household of His Excellency, and the question of 
remuneration for his services, writes : " I requested 
that if the Viceroy wished to make any return to me 
he should do it by helping on my Medical Mission 
work. I therefore receive no salary, but all the cost 
of the medical work at the temple is borne by His 
Excellency. 

" From the commencement I have been unable to 
compass the work, so many have applied for treat- 
ment. Every help has been given me ; a handsome 
pony and English saddlery, with ma-fu, have been 



1 84 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

provided, and a military official comes daily to conduct 
me to and from the temple, or to the various yamens 
of the city. 

" Mr. Pethick has given great help in getting the 
mass of work into some order. Every case is now 
entered upon a separate sheet in a large day book. 
The number of this page is given to each patient on 
a ticket, and when he comes again he has to produce 
it. One very striking feature about this dispensary 
work is, that the old patients attend so regularly, and 
from the number of applicants all slight cases are 
excluded. Thus in a day I may only take on twelve 
or fourteen new cases, but see over a hundred old 
cases. As the days have shortened, I now attend at 
the temple from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Saturday 
last saw over two hundred cases ; yet many had to 
go away unseen. 

" All the helpers are untrained men. Mr. Pai was 
too much of a native doctor with a private practice 
to care to assume a subordinate position for a moderate 
salary and no private practice, so he has left us, and 
we have closed the old dispensary. It is much 
better as it is, for I can train the present staff my 
own way. 

" The opening here for Medical Missions is so re- 
markable, all classes and both sexes eagerly seeking 
aid, that after Miss Dr. Howard's return to Peking 
I wrote to the Committee, with her consent, urging 
her transfer to Tien-tsin, to take up the splendid 
opening for work amongst the women here. She has 



THE POWER OP PRAYER. 185 

therefore come down to Tien-tsin with her Chinese 
women, and commenced work, taking the female 
department at the temple, the entire support of 
which is borne by Lady Li. 

" Though the temple has ample accommodation to 
satisfy the most ambitious for in-patients, the dis- 
tance, three miles from the Mission compound, made 
it very awkward to leave severe cases, especially after 
surgical operations, so far off. Had I been alone I 
should have taken up my abode in the temple ; but 
this was impossible, and would have been very un- 
wise from a health standpoint, besides which it was 
very desirable that the in-patients should be more 
under the influence of Christian surroundings. 

" But our Heavenly Father, who has thus wonder- 
fully answered prayer in giving funds and an open 
door to the people of Tien-tsin, can also give us a 
permanent hospital." 

We see, therefore, that up to this period the Medical 
Mission work accomplished in Tien-tsin had been 
largely confined to the outdoor department, and as 
many as two hundred and fifty sick persons were 
often congregated at one time in the large court of 
the dispensary. 

Dr. Mackenzie was feeling more and more that the 
grand work to which he had been called was un- 
satisfactory, from a medical point of view, for one 
foreign physician, single-handed, with untrained native 
assistants, to compass. Moreover, although a dis- 
pensary gives large opportunities for relieving the 



1 86 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



sick, the prospects for doing lasting spiritual work 
are not very hopeful. 

'•' A gospel address is always delivered to the waiting 
patients, but they are usually so fully occupied with 
their own ailments and the novelty of being treated 
by a foreign doctor, that they can spare little thought 
for the glad news we so much desire to tell them." 

It was not wonderful, therefore, that Dr. Mackenzie 
earnestly desired to see a hospital erected, since it 
would prove so powerful an aid to the evangelistic 
work of the Mission, which always lay so near his 
heart, and, moreover, was urgently required whenever 
serious operations were performed. 

It was decided to erect the hospital on a vacant 
space of the London Mission compound. Plans were 
drawn up by Mr. Lees and Dr. Mackenzie, and having 
been submitted to some of his wealthier patients, he 
found them very willing to give out of their abundance 
for the relief of other sufferers. 

" The patients have shown a readiness to help," he 
writes ; " besides presenting tablets, etc., they have 
now and again sent subscriptions. A general came 
and lived at the hotel in the concession, in order that 
I might attend him for dysentery. When he was well, 
and called to thank me, I told him of our desire to 
establish an hospital in our grounds for the reception 
of severe cases that could not be left so far away at 
the temple. He wanted to see the plans ; they were 
examined, and when he next called he subscribed 
tls. 500. 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 187 

" This general had been very bold in his defence of 
Buddhism against Christianity during my visits to 
him, and had uttered some bitter things against our 
Saviour. I was surprised to find his acquaintance 
with the Bible very considerable ; yet he was intensely 
antagonistic. He had been in the Taiping rebellion, 
and had become acquainted with a mongrel form, if 
one dare to call it so, of Christianity ; and yet God 
moved his heart to give thus liberally to aid our 
plans. 

" The Prefect of the city, also a patient, who had 
established a native dispensary in Tien-tsin some 
months ago, upon leaving, when promoted to the 
provincial capital, closed the dispensary and handed 
over the balance of its funds, tls. 300, to our new 
hospital account. 

" Another official, the Customs Taotai, when I called 
and laid the matter before him, gave us a subscription 
of tls. 1,000. 

" The subject was mentioned to the Viceroy, who 
approved of it, and handed me a letter authorizing 
Mr. Pethick, U.S. Consul in Tien-tsin, and myself to 
make a public subscription in aid of my work. • He 
also offered himself to subscribe tls. 1,000 ; but as 
the entire support of the dispensary work was borne 
by His Excellency, we judged it best not to tax his 
generosity too suddenly, but to wait the result of a 
public appeal." 

Before the above-named subscription list was issued, 
however, through the sums contributed by grateful 



188 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



patients alone Dr. Mackenzie was able to prepare the 
ground and complete one ward of the hospital. 

" This hospital work," he writes, " gives remarkable 
opportunities for circulating the gospel message 
through the length and breadth of the land, for 
already many of the cases have come from long 
distances, and in every instance have returned with a 
more or less clear knowledge of gospel truth. As 
yet we are making the in-patients provide their own 
food, but are compelled so many times to refuse 
admission to needy cases, suitable subjects for opera- 
tion or treatment, that I am hoping God will send us 
sufficient funds to support a few free beds. To keep 
a bed occupied all the year round here in China 
would only cost a five-pound note, and yet be the 
means of incalculable good to some eight or ten 
crippled or diseased people, and open up to them 
such an opportunity of religious teaching as* can be 
obtained in no other way. 

" I get numerous opportunities of introducing the 
subject of Christianity to the highly-educated Chinese, 
and find that when wisely approached they will listen 
respectfully and with attention, though ever ready to 
find parallel truth in the teachings of Confucius. 

" The work now is only limited by one's strength 
and capacity. May God give us strength in our 
great weakness." 

With hands and head constantly occupied with 
congenial work, and seeing success crowning his 
efforts on every side, it is scarcely to be wondered at 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 189 

that Dr. Mackenzie taxed his strength to the utmost, 
till at last the strain became too great, and nature 
took its revenge. 

" I am so tired," is a remark that occurs more than 
once in the letters written to his mother during the 
latter months of this year, and the weariness cul- 
minated at last in a serious attack of illness. 

" Your warm-hearted New Year's letters came safely 
to hand not many days after the period they were 
intended for," he writes in a home letter. " They came 
to brighten us just as I was recovering from a sudden 
and sharp illness, and was lying prostrate from weak- 
ness. It was just another but more severe attack of 
my old enemy malaria, but complicated by slight 
congestion of the brain. But God in His mercy would 
not let it go too far, and I am, though still weak, I 
trust a wiser and a better man. In such times of 
affliction there is no comfort or consolation in any 
other but in our Saviour Jesus. Though my life has 
been so full of disobedience to that dear Saviour's 
commands, yet as a sinner solely relying upon His 
grace He never left me, and I felt His loving strong 
arms protecting me, even when so seriously ill. I was 
so happy, and had, oh, such perfect rest. Don't think 
that I am trying to preach a sermon ; I cannot help 
writing what I have. Who can comprehend the love 
of God for sinful men ? It passeth a mother's love. 
Everybody has been so good and kind to me it makes 
me marvel, and I bless God for it. 

" Mr. Pethick sat up three nights running. Dr. 



190 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Irwin, besides being with me three times a day, took 
what he could of the temple work, with Pethick 
interpreting. To-day I have had a call from the 
Governor of Tien-tsin, the Taotai. I treated him 
formerly for an attack of bronchitis, and so he now 
came to ask after me. Eastern dignitaries go about 
in state, and the official retinue in this case extended 
about a hundred yards up our compound." 
On May nth, 1880, the Doctor writes : — 
" The work continues to prosper through the bless- 
ing of God. I have my hands full now in the hospital, 
so I only go up four days in the week to the temple. 
It is pleasant to see the buildings rising up about 
us here, within sight of the window as I write. This 
gives some good guarantee, were one needed, of the 
permanence of the work. Not that the interest of the 
Viceroy abates in the matter at all, but some people 
ask, what would happen were the Viceroy to die or 
leave Tien-tsin? Such contingencies do not trouble 
me, as I believe it is God's work, not ours. We are 
not trusting in the princes of this world, but in the 
help of the King of kings, who has already started 
this work, and He will not forsake it, I am sure. We 
only want to use more our privilege of prayer, through 
faith in Jesus. It is most marvellous to think that 
God promises to hear and answer prayer when in the 
name of Jesus. Especially is this manifest when we 
are in felt need. Only within the last week the truth 
of this came strongly home to me. A patient was 
brought to the hospital in great progress ; he could 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 191 

hardly breathe, and was in an agony of pain. His 
illness was of such a nature as to necessitate operation 
as the only chance of recovery. On the evening after 
operation the patient became almost pulseless. He 
was besides in great pain, and his friends comforted 
him by saying he was sure to die. After doing all 
I could for him, I imitated the men who brought the 
case of palsy to our Lord to be healed, and laid this 
man's case before Jesus. He heard my prayers and 
the prayers of dear Millie, and the next morning 
there was a very great improvement in the man, 
since which time he has been daily getting better. 

" It would probably be difficult for a medical man in 
England to comprehend my anxiety over such cases, 
for you have to be in these circumstances to under- 
stand them. At home in such serious cases consultants 
are called in, and whatever operation is undertaken, 
be the result what it may, it is accepted that the best 
thing has been done for the patient. Here I am 
alone ; Dr. Irwin would come if I sent for him, but 
I do not like to be troubling him too frequently. 
Then the Chinese, though they see a man is very ill, 
don't realize that unless operated upon he must die. 
If he should die after the operation, they would be 
sure to spread abroad the news that our operation 
had killed him, and so the work would be seriously 
damaged from false reports. 

" Since commencing this letter I have had an inter- 
view with the Viceroy. He wants me to start a 
vaccine establishment in connection with the temple 



192 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

work ; so I have agreed, and sent for a supply of 
vaccine to Shanghai. I must teach some Chinese how 
to operate, as I have no time to do it myself. I 
vaccinated the Viceroy's little son, two years old, in 
the yamen. I saw a young Chinaman to-day just 
back from Germany, where he has been studying 
military science ; a most promising young fellow, but 
come back only to die, as he is in a most rapid con- 
sumption, and cannot, humanly speaking, live more 
than a few weeks." 

Shortly after this Dr. Mackenzie writes : — 
" It seems to me, with my experience of missions, 
to be a very foolish thing that the Churches at home 
who are interested in missionary work do not take 
up more earnestly the subject of Medical Missions. 
I believe they find a difficulty in getting men ; but if 
they were to make a special point of it, they could 
surely get more, and even, if necessary, they might 
train men. In a land like China there should be a 
medical missionary in every station, particularly for 
pioneer work in the interior. I believe I could go 
and settle anywhere, acting cautiously and wisely, and 
be undisturbed by the people ; and so could any 
medical missionary after some experience. And yet 
they have a bare handful of qualified men in China in 
the various Missions. 

" My medical work comes so congenially to me with 
my present hospital for in-patients. I have a splendid 
field for surgical practice, and it is becoming more 
and more a passion with me. I love my medical 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 193 

work for its own sake, and more so still when I know 
it is paving the way for blessings yet in store for this 
land." 

In the summer of 1880 there seemed every prospect 
that China would become involved in war with Russia. 
Sir Thomas Wade was staying in Tien-tsin for several 
weeks, and was holding frequent interviews with the 
Viceroy. During the course of this visit Li Hung 
Chang gave a banquet in foreign style, inviting six 
foreign gentlemen and eight of the principal Chinese 
officials to meet the British minister. Drs. Irwin 
and Mackenzie, the Viceroy's medical advisers, were 
included among the guests. 

His Excellency seems to have spoken to Sir 
Thomas in the most appreciative terms of the good 
work Dr. Mackenzie was carrying on, under his 
patronage, for the relief of the sick people of Tien- 
tsin, and to have singled him out for special marks 
of favour during the banquet. 

" I felt thankful to the Viceroy, because I know he 
was speaking according to his own judgment," he 
writes to his brother. " No foreigners have biassed 
him in my favour ; the fact that I am a Missionary 
effectually precludes that." 

Dr. Mackenzie was perhaps over-sensitive on this 
point ; he seems to have taken it a little too much for 
granted that the motives which led him to devote his 
life to caring for the spiritual as well as the bodily 
needs of the Chinese around him could not be appre- 
ciated or understood by the majority of his fellow- 

13 



194 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

countrymen in China. He thought, because he had 
deliberately set aside all thought of accumulating 
wealth for himself, there must necessarily be an 
insinuation of inferiority tinging all their thoughts 
of him. But whatever the opinion of foreign com- 
munities in the East may be of missionaries generally, 
it is certain that Dr. Mackenzie's professional skill 
and noble character were held in the highest esti- 
mation by all who knew him ; while with regard 
to religion they viewed him in the light of an 
enthusiast. 

About this time there is a record in the Doctor's 
diary of an interview he had with General, then 
Colonel, Gordon, who was staying in Tien-tsin, having 
come to North China at the request of his old 
comrade-in-arms, Li Hung Chang, to discuss and 
advise upon the difficulties in which China was then 
involved. 

" During his stay in Tien-tsin Colonel Gordon was 
residing in ' our temple,' in the quarters set apart for 
the guests of the Viceroy. It is very extensive, and 
has splendid accommodation after Chinese style. 
Gordon is truly a godly man, of the rare old Puritan 
type. I was greatly delighted and instructed by 
his genial conversation. He is a Christian soldier, 
reminding one of Havelock, and a man of men. 
He is looking strong and hearty, and has a very 
pleasing face. Evidently, from his conversation, he 
is a very earnest student of the Bible, which was 
lying on the table at his side. He spoke of his own 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 195 

spiritual experience, of his faith that God would 
not allow him to want, and therefore he felt that 
he had no right to store up money or give any 
anxious thought to the future. To strengthen my 
faith, he informed me that when he left England 
he gave to his brothers all his money, reserving only 
£%0 for his journey. When he arrived in India he 
had with him only £g sterling. When he resigned 
his post as secretary to the Marquis of Ripon he had 
only £1. He might have remained at his post for a 
while, until he received a portion of his salary, which 
would have tided him over ; but feeling it to be his 
duty to resign he did so, and borrowed a few pounds 
to meet incidental expenses. The day after came a 
telegram from Peking, inviting him to come to China ; 
and so the financial difficulty was removed. When 
he reached Chefoo, in consequence of a letter he 
received from Sir Robert Hart he thought of turning 
back, and going again to Egypt. However, he finally 
decided to come on and see the Viceroy, at any rate. 
He preferred to sleep on board the steamer the first 
night, after which he removed to the T'seng-kung-su, 
so as not to implicate any one. 

" He also received instructions from home telling 
him that his ' leave ' was stopped, and that he must 
return at once. He, however, determined to have an 
interview with the Viceroy, at which he asked him 
plainly, * Do you want me ? If you do, I will stay 
with you. But are you, with your military officers, 
prepared to effect changes ? If not, it is no use my 



196 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

staying. For any good to come of it you must do 
the work yourselves, and I will help you.' Gordon 
said he liked the Viceroy very much, and the Chinese 
people generally, and he thought them very good- 
hearted. He said, how little foreign merchants in 
China seemed to know of the Chinese. With refer- 
ence to the troubles which were the cause of his visit 
to this country, he remarked that he had told the 
Viceroy if he was really required he would stay, and 
help them, if possible, to settle matters quietly. If, 
however, war was forced upon them, he would fight 
with them to the last ; all he required was a coffin 
and a hole in the ground. As he was their servant, 
he should expect to have his expenses met, but he 
desired no other recompense. He had at once tele- 
graphed home, resigning his commission. 

" He said he had learned to say, with Paul, ' I am 
the chief of sinners,' as an actual experience ; that in 
himself he felt there was no particle of merit, not the 
slightest thing that he could hold up as worthy of 
praise. He did not attend church, except in England, 
for example's sake, for he so rarely heard the gospel, 
that is, ' Glad Tidings,' preached. He believed in 
preaching by the life. Clergymen, he said, so often 
preached, ' Do good, and you will go to heaven ; do 
evil, and you will go to hell.' For himself, he preferred 
living with the publicans rather than with the Phari- 
sees. He was weary of this world, and longed for 
death, which appeared to him to be a much-desired 
event, leading to the Haven of Rest. He thinks the 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 197 

nobler life will begin in the next world, and is waiting 
for it. 

" While in Africa, in the Soudan, he was a perfect 
sovereign. He had a box in front of his palace, with 
a slit in it, and whoever had a grievance could drop 
a petition into this box, which would be attended to 
by himself. He spent all his income upon the people, 
and brought nothing away with him. Since he has 
been here the Viceroy has sent him presents and 
money ; but he returned everything, except two boxes 
of tea. He never had any doubts upon religious 
subjects ; ' They were all cleared away now,' he re- 
marked. He is such a bright, happy fellow, he makes 
everybody love him who comes near him. I was 
struck with one thing about him, and that was, that 
religion had become a part of his life. Not that he 
uses religious phrases ; I fancy he has an abomina- 
tion of cant, or anything approaching to it ; but it is 
natural to him to refer to spiritual things. You can't 
help recognising the sort of man he is." 

It is interesting to read of this interview between 
these two men, both of them on terms of familiar 
intercourse with the great Chinese Viceroy. The 
inspiration of their lives was the same — a simple faith, 
not only in the unseen and Eternal, but in a living 
Saviour ; and it enabled them, as the graphic transla- 
tion of the Lutheran Bible has it, to hold on to Him 
they saw not, as though they saw Him. 

It would be strange if the Viceroy, with such types 
of Christian character as these before him, should not 



198 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

at times have exercised his mind over the faith which 
influenced them. Dr. Mackenzie was often questioned 
as to whether he saw any leaning towards Christianity 
on the part of those in high places with whom he was 
constantly associated ; and he was always careful to 
explain that, even as in the Judea of old, it would be 
indeed hard for the rich and powerful of this land to 
receive the religion of Jesus. 

With regard to the Viceroy's own feeling on the 
subject of Christianity, it is well known that on one 
occasion he expressed, in no measured terms, his 
surprise that a people so cultured and intelligent as 
those of the West should, as the very foundation of 
their faith, give credence to a story so improbable as 
that of the incarnation of our Lord. Similar legends 
were prevalent in the East, he admitted, in connec- 
tion with other religions ; but none but the common 
people believed in them. To the end of Mackenzie's 
life the Viceroy ever regarded him as a man of noble 
character and high aims, but at the same time he 
looked upon him as almost a fanatic with regard to 
religion. 

The Doctor always expressed in the highest terms 
his admiration for His Excellency's kindness of heart, 
remarkable administrative ability, and far-reaching 
views in reference to the immediate and future neces- 
sities of his country. 

Writing to a friend in England, who had asked his 
opinion with regard to the treatment of the Chinese 
in the state of California, Mackenzie says : — 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 199 

" The Americans have sent a new minister and two 
special commissioners to China to make a new treaty 
with reference to emigration and the Californian 
trouble. Well, they have finished their work, and 
a few days ago, when the Viceroy was handing the 
treaty already signed back to the commissioners (for 
His Excellency is also Grand Secretary of State), he 
said, ' This treaty has been drawn up in the spirit 
of Christianity, and it reflects honour on both 
nations.' " 

" Tien-tsin has been upset of late with war rumours/' 
he writes a few weeks later, " and our subscription 
list for the hospital has been necessarily set aside ; 
however, the building still goes on, and the roof will 
shortly be finished. We are wanting about another 
thousand taels to complete it. If we had matters 
settled quietly this sum and more could be obtained 
without much difficulty. In case war comes, I will 
ask the balance from the Viceroy to complete the 
building for the reception of wounded soldiers. I 
have already promised him that in case of war I 
would accompany him and the troops into action, 
and do what I could for the wounded." 

" W T e have had such nice guests staying with us, 
on their way to the interior," he writes in a letter 
dated November 13th. " Dr. and Mrs. Schofield are 
great additions to the missionary body in China, and 
make one realize that the spirit of self-sacrifice is as 
strong now as ever it was. They have independent 
means, and have come to China, at their own cost, in 



200 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

connection with the China Inland Mission. He is 
a man who could hope for the highest position in 
medicine in London—is an M.D. and M.A. of Oxford, 
and has been on the staff of St Bartholomew's 
Hospital. He has travelled very extensively in 
America, Palestine, Greece, Turkey, and all the great 
countries of Europe. He preaches in French, Ger- 
man, and English, and although he has been in 
China only three months, he already speaks better 
than most men after a year. He has studied medi- 
cine in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, and served 
as an ambulance surgeon in the Turkish war. Now, 
with life opening before him, at the age of twenty- 
nine, he has determined to devote himself to medical 
missionary work in China. Most people would say 
he was throwing himself away, and that all his fine 
education was being wasted. But not so ; he could 
not have a nobler sphere than to be engaged in the 
fight to open China to the gospel. He is going into 
Shan-se to Tai-yuen-fu, and as a medical missionary 
will be an immense gain to them there. We greatly 
enjoyed their visit of four days, for he is a splendid 
fellow, so manly, and yet so humble a Christian." 

It was on December 2nd, 1880, that the new 
hospital, the funds for the building of which had been 
entirely supplied from Chinese sources, was publicly 
opened by His Excellency the Viceroy. The occasion 
was one of such special interest that it elicited the 
hearty co-operation of both Chinese and foreigners. 

In the course of a detailed account of the opening 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 201 

festivities given by the North China Daily News, it 
remarks : — 

" The occasion deserves more than a passing notice. 
It exhibits a new and important phase in the history 
of Medical Missions in China. Hitherto the work of 
these Missions in this country has been carried on 
almost entirely by foreign aid, the occasional sub- 
scriptions received from native sources having been 
very small. Unique interest, therefore, attaches to 
the work carried on by Dr. Mackenzie during the 
past fifteen months, seeing that all the funds for its 
support have been derived from native sources." 

The hospital is built on the Taku Road, the 
principal thoroughfare between the foreign settlement 
with the shipping and the native city. 

The Doctor gives the following description of the 
building, which, as he always said, " God gave 
to us " : — 

" It is erected in the best style of Chinese architec- 
ture, and has an extremely picturesque and attractive 
appearance. The front building, standing in its own 
courtyard, is ascended by broad stone steps, which 
lead from the covered gateway to a verandah, with 
massive wooden pillars running along its whole 
length. A hall divides it into two portions. On the 
right side and in front is a spacious dispensary, 
which, thanks to the 'liberality of the Viceroy, is 
wanting in nothing, rivalling any English dispensary 
in the abundance and variety of the drugs, appliances, 
etc. ; behind this is a roomy drug-store. On the left 



202 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



of the hall is a large waiting-room, with benches for 
the convenience of the patients, and used on Sundays 
and other days as a preaching hall. Behind, and 
to one side, is the Chinese reception-room always 
to be found in a native building. The rooms are very 
lofty, without ceilings, leaving exposed the huge 
painted beams, many times larger than foreigners 
deem necessary, but the pride of the Chinese builder. 

" Running off in two parallel wings at the back are 
the surgery and wards, the latter able to accommo- 
date thirty-six in-patients. The wards in the right 
wing, four in number, are small, intended each to 
receive only three patients ; here we can isolate 
dangerous cases, and also receive persons, such as 
officials and others, who require greater privacy. 
The wards are all furnished with kangs instead of 
beds, as is the custom in North China. These kangs 
are built of bricks, with flues running underneath, so 
that in winter they can be heated ; the bedding is 
spread upon a mat over the warm bricks." 

The opening ceremony is thus described : — 

" The various rooms were gaily decorated ; the 
place of honour was reserved for the Chinese Dragon, 
but a large number of other national flags were also 
used in draping the walls and ceilings. 

" The waiting-room, where the ceremony was to take 
place, was arranged as a Chinese grand reception- 
room, the furniture being borrowed from the yamens 
for the occasion, and the floors covered with camels' 
hair carpets 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 203 

" Amongst the Chinese guests were the three 
Taotais, the Prefect of the city, and numerous civil and 
military mandarins. The English, German, Russian, 
and American Consuls were also present. 

" Upon the arrival of the Viceroy an illuminated 
address in Chinese was presented to him. His 
Excellency, in a few words, expressed his thanks, 
adding that he was unworthy of so much praise. 

" Speeches in Chinese were then delivered by the 
British and Russian Consuls, and then Mr. Taotai 
Man, the Chief Secretary, replied for the Viceroy in 
French. After the speech-making was concluded, the 
native assistants were introduced to the Viceroy, who, 
after formally opening the building, commenced a 
careful inspection. He examined many varieties of 
drugs, inquiring into their properties, and wished to 
know if we had any remedies in common with the 
Chinese. He asked also if most of our medicinal 
agents came from the organic or inorganic kingdoms ; 
about the cost of foreign drugs, and other queries too 
numerous to mention. But in the surgery the greatest 
amount of interest was excited. The walls were hung 
with anatomical and physiological charts ; on the 
operating-table and shelves were spread the valuable 
collection of surgical instruments belonging to the 
hospital, with models of the human body and heart, 
lent by the Tien-tsin civil doctors. Everything in this 
department was new, even to such officials as the 
Viceroy and Superintendent of Arsenals, to whom 
the latest inventions in electricitv and mechanics are 



204 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



immediately sent. Although there is no railway in 
China, the Viceroy has intelligently studied the steam- 
engine from models, and is probably better acquainted 
with its working than many well-informed foreigners. 

" Questions without number as to the uses, action, 
etc., of various instruments were put, and required all 
one's readiness of mind to give answers that would be 
easily comprehended. The size of the human brain 
in relation to the body, as shown in the wax model, 
drew special attention. After the wards had been 
examined, the guests sat down to partake of refresh- 
ments ; and it was evident, as each took his departure, 
that the Chinese officials went away highly delighted 
with their visit. 

tC On the Sunday following the opening of the 
hospital a thanksgiving meeting was held in the 
hospital, attended by members of all the churches 
in Tien-tsin. 

" A number of missionary friends spoke in words of 
praise and thanksgiving for what God had manifestly 
wrought. He, of a truth, had heard and answered 
prayer, and when the door seemed well-nigh closed, 
had opened wide its portals. Much prayer was 
offered up, that as God had already given so many 
temporal blessings, and drawn the people so near us, 
He would, in the days that are to come, pour down 
richly of those spiritual blessings for which our hearts 
are longing." 

It was indeed evident to all that the prayers of 
those early months had been answered in a most 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 205 

remarkable manner, for even in the minor needs of 
the work there were so many of what the world calls 
coincidences, but Christians the hand of God. Well 
indeed might the Doctor say, in speaking of these 
experiences : " I do indeed believe in prayer. I am 
forced to believe in it, and to say, from practical ex- 
perience, I am sure that God does hear and answer 
prayer." 



CHAPTER X. 
EVANGELISTIC LABOURS. 



Qualifications for Medical Mission Work — A Yamen Runner 
brought to Christ — Enduring- Persecution — Dispensary 
Scenes — In the Wards — Gift of Customs Taotai — The 
Reserve Fund — Failure of Mrs. Mackenzie's Health — Her 
Return to England — Chinese Appreciation of Surgery — 
Breaking down Prejudice — A Chinese Lady Patient — A 
Travelling Evangelist — Learning to Pray — An Applicant 
for Baptism — Confucius — China of To-day — Viceroy's 
Desire for Progress — No Middle Path in China. 



CHAPTER X 

EVANGELISTIC LABOURS. 

WE have seen that in less than two years after 
Dr. Mackenzie's arrival in Tien-tsin he found 
himself in possession of exceptional advantages for 
the development of Medical Mission work. It seemed 
as if the Lord had not only answered His servant's 
long-continued and earnest prayers, but had given 
him even more than he had dreamed of. Not only 
had he a large and well-appointed hospital within the 
Mission compound, the current expenses of which 
were all defrayed by the Viceroy ; he had also, in the 
heart of Tien-tsin city, close to the Viceroy's yamen, a 
dispensary for out-patients. 

But Dr. Mackenzie could never have been contented 
with these great advantages if he had not had full 
scope for his work as an evangelist. 

" Let us not be satisfied," he wrote in after years, 
"with mere crowds flocking to us for medical treat- 
ment. We have a higher vocation to fulfil. Let us 
wait expectingly for the touch of faith, and with the 
Master may this alone satisfy our hearts. 

" Our waiting-rooms may be full of patients, and all 
2 °9 I 4 



210 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

our beds be occupied, and yet these men and women 
will pass from under our care pretty much as they 
came to us, so far as higher things are concerned, 
unless we directly bestir ourselves for their spiritual 
good. They seek us, it is true, but for their bodies 
only ; if we would win their souls, we must seek them. 
The command to us, as to all the disciples, is * Go ye,' 

* Compel them to come in.' Deliver us from think- 
ing that we are obeying this command when we 
employ an evangelist, and say to him, ' You go and 
preach to the patients, while I attend to their bodies.' 
This is not being a Medical Missionary." 

" After all," he writes to a medical friend in China, 
" our great work lies in bringing home the love of 
God to our patients. What a glorious thing it is to 
be engaged in such a service ! Spiritual results can 
never die, but must go on to eternity." 

And in these the early days of the great prosperity 
which had come to him in so wonderful a way, 
Mackenzie's one thought seemed to be how he might 
use every advantage for the glory of his Lord and 
Master. 

" While I am so frequently having conversations 
with the Viceroy and Lady Li, I need to let them 
see," he writes, " what true Christianity is like. May 
God help me, by my conduct and actions, to exemplify 
the teachings of Jesus. ' Whether believers in Jesus 
Christ or not,' remarked the Viceroy on one occasion, 

* we are all of one mind in wishing to aid in the heal- 
ing of the sick,' " 



EVANGELISTIC LABOURS. 211 

This was true ; but the bringing of sin-sick souls for 
healing to the Great Physician was to Dr. Mackenzie 
the great end of all his work. A letter which he 
received about this time from his aged father, and 
preserved with much care, shows how the home in- 
fluences which had surrounded his earliest days 
were of a nature to develop such a spirit of loving 
consecration. 

" May these bodily cures, which you are instru- 
mental and privileged in accomplishing, shadow forth 
the still greater cure of the diseases of sin which the 
Great Physician alone can effect. You have indeed 
great cause for thankfulness in the way in which the 
Lord hath led you. What an argument for trusting 
in Him more fully ! 

" It is very gratifying to hear that you never enjoyed 
better health ; still you must not overwork yourself, 
but husband your strength. Your dear mother is 
sending out to Millie a very precious book called 
'John Whom Jesus Loved.' Spurgeon writes very 
highly of it, as one of those books which a dozen 
readings will only make more interesting. ■ The 
Lord reigneth.' The whole succession of events is 
part of the chain of Divine purposes. What if the 
occurrences that are taking place now in Tien-tsin be 
a link in that mighty chain of events that will in due 
time bring about the salvation of China ! " 

And God did not disappoint His servant's faith ; He 
allowed him to see even here great spiritual blessing 
as the result of his labours. 



JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



" One of the first patients in the new hospital," the 
Doctor writes, " was baptized last week. He was a 
sinner indeed, with whom no Pharisee would associate ; 
but ' they that are whole need not a physician.' This 
man realized his spiritual sickness, and with joy 
received salvation. He was a subordinate in the 
Prefect's yamen, named Chow, and got his living by 
demanding blackmail from the keepers of houses of 
ill fame. These houses exist against the law, but 
as they bribe the underlings of the yamens their 
existence is winked at. 

" This man was a general bully and rascal. He came 
to the hospital to undergo an operation for the cure 
of caries of the ribs. Having no help at hand, I 
operated without chloroform, and was struck with the 
unusual fortitude of the man in bearing pain. He 
saw the necessity for the operation, and submitted 
without the slightest flinching. He had a good deal 
of character, and during his stay of over two months 
in the hospital he became acquainted with the doc- 
trines of salvation. Side by side with his physical 
improvement there was undoubtedly a moral change 
going on within him, visible in the calm, straightfor- 
ward look of his face. When he went out he had 
come to the conclusion that he could not return to 
his old post, although it was still kept open for him, 
and was a money-making office. Then he tried hard 
to get other employment, but having learnt no trade 
this was not an easy matter. Moreover, he had money 
out at usury, and he found, because he no longer 



EVANGELISTIC LABOURS. «3 

bullied and browbeat, the people refused to pay him 
either principal or interest. But he still held out, 
attending the service regularly, and never asking our 
help. Finally he has got employment which will 
take him away from Tien-tsin, and so, at his earnest 
request, he was baptized. I believe he is genuinely 
sincere, for he has lost much and gained nothing, from 
a worldly point of view." 

Writing for friends at home, the Doctor gives them 
the following graphic account of his daily work : — 

" Let me take you in thought to our Chinese 
hospital. Ascending a broad flight of stone steps to 
the verandah, we pass into a lofty hall and enter the 
waiting-room. Forms are ranged down the whole 
length of it and at both sides. Texts of Scripture in 
Chinese decorate the walls, while at one end of the 
room stands a chair and table. 

" The hour is nine o'clock, and the gong is sounding 
for morning prayers. Already groups of men are 
collected from the city and villages around, some 
having their bedding by their side done up in bundles. 
There is a man nearly blind ; his little son has led him 
here this morning ; here sits a lame man, with his 
crutches in his hand. That pale, hollow-cheeked, 
feeble man has probably dysentery or phthisis. The 
sallow, emaciated opium smoker is also there, and one 
who is suffering from a horrible tumour has come 
up for operation. As the gong beats the in-patients 
who are sufficiently convalescent come trooping in ; 
a strange spectacle indeed, with their bandages and 



214 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

dressings on. Here come the assistants, and now we 
all take our seats. 

"A hymn is given out — perhaps it is one from 
Sankey's collection, then a portion of Scripture is 
read, verse about. The subject is probably a Gospel 
one, very likely a case of healing. It is explained, and 
lessons are drawn from it ; the patients, who continue 
to drop in, are generally very quiet and attentive. 
The meeting closes at the end of half an hour with 
prayer. Then the medical missionary crosses to the 
dispensary, while the native evangelist continues to 
talk to the patients as they wait for their turn. And 
now the work of healing begins ; one by one the 
patients come into the dispensary. This is a large 
room, with two sides occupied with shelves and drawers 
containing our stock-in-trade. In front is a counter, 
at which the dispensers are at work putting up 
medicines. At the table sits the writer, taking down 
the particulars of each case, and making out the 
tickets. On one side of the room is a row of chairs 
and small square tables, a table, or tea-poy, being 
placed between two chairs. 

" Here comes a typical case, led by a friend — a man 
suffering from eye disease. From the ineffectual 
attempt he makes to see you his sight is evidently 
very bad. You examine his inflamed eyes, and find 
that to protect them from the glare and dust he is 
constantly contracting his eyelids. The inflammation, 
therefore, spreads to the lids, which become perma- 
nently contracted. The rubbing of the turned-in lids 



EVANGELISTIC LABOURS. 215 

and lashes upon the tender eyeball leads from bad 
to worse, until, from neglect and ignorance, fatal 
blindness often results. 

" Happily, the case this morning is not of long 
standing ; the patient is told that he must become an 
in-patient, undergo a slight operation, and there is 
every prospect of his sight being greatly improved, 
and the probability of a complete cure. 

" If the patient is a stranger, at the word operation 
he will probably start back in dismay, exclaiming, 
1 Cut ! No, never ! ' You quietly call to one of the 
assistants to lead the patient, with his friend, to one 
of the wards to rest awhile. There is sure to be a 
similar case under treatment, and the testimony of 
one of the man's own countrymen is of more weight 
with him than any amount of arguing on our part. 
By the time we are ready to operate he has pro- 
bably made his appearance again, and is smilingly 
consenting. 

" But we must hurry on, or our morning's work 
will not be finished. One by one the patients 
follow each other ; the serious cases are urged to 
remain, or are told frankly that we can do nothing 
for them. The rest have wounds dressed, bandages 
or splints applied, and medicines given to them. 

" Here comes a man who rushes forward in eager . 
salutation, dragging behind him a companion ; he 
introduces himself as a former patient, and the friend 
who accompanies him is willing to submit to any treat- 
ment we may propose without demur, his fears having 



2*6 jOtiN KENkEtH MACKENZIE. 

been entirely removed by his comrade's persuasions. 
Here, carried in truly Oriental fashion upon his bed, 
or in a basket, is a case of severe palsy, for which we 
can do nothing but speak some kind word. Or it 
may be a casualty — an accident case from one of 
the arsenals or factories. But we have not finished. 
Here comes an official's servant with a large red piece 
of paper in his hand ; it is his master's visiting card, 
and he informs us that the gentleman will soon be 
here. Shortly he appears, probably accompanied 
by a friend ; he is received at the door, and invited 
into the reception room. If he is not very ill, I pro- 
bably invite him into the dispensary to inspect our 
work. In they come, and are seated with some 
difficulty, for no one likes to take the upper seat, and 
then the inevitable cup of tea is brought. Then their 
servants must bring our official friends their pipes 
to smoke as they watch us at work. As the patients 
pass under review these gentlemen quickly discover 
that they have friends suffering from the same com- 
plaints. One is certain that a relative has a cough 
exactly like that man's, and they will advise these 
sick friends immediately to come down for treatment. 
When our dispensary work is over, we proceed to 
visit the wards. Look at that man sitting on his 
brick bed, with his bedding still in a bundle, instead 
of being comfortably spread out. He is a new comer, 
and has not as yet quite got over his fears. By 
to-morrow he will be as jolly as his bodily ailment 
allows. By one bedside, as we enter, sits the native 



EVANGELISTIC LABOURS. 317 

evangelist, with an open Bible upon his knee ; he has 
been expounding the Scriptures. Portions of Gospels 
and tracts are scattered about the wards, and as we 
pass from- patient to patient, dressing wounds and 
attending to the wants of all, we question them upon 
the books by their side and exhort them to think 
of the truths of Christianity, and thus have innumer- 
able opportunities for individual dealing. 

" I have written of the brick beds, or kangs, and 
must explain that in the north of China (whatever 
they do elsewhere) we have in our hospital no spring 
mattresses, but brick platforms, pierced with a system 
of flues for heating the beds in the winter. 

" I make a rule never to take in hand a case of 
surgical operation unless there is a very good pro- 
bability of recovery. But the Chinese stand opera- 
tions remarkably well, for I have removed a cancerous 
tumour as large as my hand from a woman of fifty 
years of age, and the next morning have found her, 
against all orders, walking about the wards. 

" And in these days, though God has not given to 
His servants miraculous powers of healing, yet so 
greatly has He enlightened us, that the man fully 
instructed and doing his work in humble dependence 
upon Divine help, will achieve such success that in 
the eyes of the Chinese it appears to be well nigh 
miraculous." 

On Christmas Day, 1880, the Doctor writes to his 
brother : — 

" The Customs Taotai, for whom I had, during 



21 8 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

the year, done some work, such as examine patients 
for whom he wanted a certificate and so on, sent 
me $100 for my own expenses. This fee will go to 
increase my reserve fund." 

Dr. Mackenzie's ideas about this " reserve fund " are 
thus described in a paper he drew up to interest the 
Chinese in the new hospital. 

" As the object of this free hospital is to aid the 
poor, the rich are invited to subscribe, and to some 
medicines are sold, the money being placed on 
deposit as a reserve fund. It is our wish that this 
fund increase so that the hospital may be carried on 
as a permanent establishment ; and if this is so, there 
are emergencies apt to arise, such as buildings requir- 
ing repairs, accidents by fire, etc., which would need 
to be provided against." 

To this account all savings from the allowance of 
the Viceroy were placed ; also all sums received as 
gifts by the Doctor from grateful patients, fees that 
came to him from consultations with other physicians 
and the like, and it was nursed by careful investments 
and economies. 

The advisability, or otherwise, of making a charge 
for attending patients coming to the Medical Mission 
hospitals is a question that has frequently been dis- 
cussed by missionary physicians. Dr. Mackenzie 
gives his own views upon the subject in a letter to 
Dr. Dugald Christie of Moukden. 

" My own opinion," he says, " is certainly against 
making charges for attendance or rooms in hospitals. I 



EVANGELISTIC LABOURS. lig 

think it tends to hinder freedom in Christian work, and 
to give people the idea of the Medical Mission being a 
' mai mai ' affair, out of which the foreigner is making 
money, and this even though the charge be a small 
one. Whereas, on the other hand, I rarely find any 
difficulty in showing a well-to-do patient his duty in 
subscribing to the hospital. They thoroughly under- 
stand a subscription list made in Chinese fashion, 
setting forth in the preface the desired object ; and 
this I either place in the hands of a patient, or send 
it to him at his home. There are blank spaces for 
the names of subscribers. I think I once, a long time 
ago, put up a notice in each ward, but it did not 
work. An individual appeal has to be made, and 
sometimes his duty in the matter very clearly pointed 
out to a patient." 

During the year 1880 there are several references 
in Dr. Mackenzie's home letters to the failure of his 
wife's health. " This climate seems to agree very 
badly with her," he says. " She has never been so 
robust as she was in England since coming north." 
During the winter no improvement was apparent in 
Mrs. Mackenzie's condition, and in February 1881 
he wrote to the Foreign Secretary of the London 
Missionary Society as follows : — 

" It is my very painful duty to inform the Directors 
that my wife's health, after long being in a precarious 
condition, has at last so broken down that her medical 
attendants have ordered her to leave the country at 
once, and to return to her native land." 



22a John Kenneth Mackenzie'. 

The Doctor accompanied his wife and child to 
Shanghai, and saw them on board the Agamemnon, in 
company with their old Hankow friends Mr. and Mrs. 
Taylor, and then returned to his work in Tien-tsin. 
This parting was naturally an extremely trying one, 
but the feeling of loneliness was, however, kept in 
check by constant occupation. About this time he 
writes : — 

" We have accommodation for thirty-five in-patients, 
and we are nearly full. This means a great deal 
more than the mere numbers imply. The hospital 
cannot be made an asylum for the chronic sick ; we 
could fill it over and over again in this way. But 
I only admit cases that can be, in all probability, 
cured or considerably relieved, and these chiefly sur- 
gical cases requiring operations. For such there is 
no help in China, excepting in Western surgery, and 
I am aiming at making this a resort for all requiring 
surgical operations. 

" In Tien-tsin there are unusual facilities for help 
during the winter. Sometimes gunboats of four 
nationalities are in the river, each with its surgeon 
on board, and they make our hospital a resort for 
clinical and surgical work. Hardly a day passes but 
some surgical operations are performed. It is in the 
rapid recoveries and successful treatment of hopeless 
surgical maladies that the Chinese see the triumph 
of Western healing art. It is a glorious thing to see 
our wards full of grave cases so generally doing 
well. For considering the large number of major 



EVANGELISTIC LABOURS. 221 

operations, the deaths have been ludicrously small 
as compared with the tables of mortality from the 
London hospitals. 

" One reason is that the home-surgeon operates if 
there is only the ghost of a chance ; whereas I reject 
all hopeless cases, for we have an impression to make, 
and can't afford to be reckless. But probably a more 
important reason is, that the nourishing yet simple 
diet of the Chinese enables them more effectually than 
an European to resist the shock of an operation. 

" Millie talks of my coming home ; but I feel more 
and more convinced that I am in my right place, and 
would not change my position very readily. By- 
and-bye, however, if the work still grows, the London 
Missionary Society will have to send out another man 
to help me. There is something being done to break 
down the prejudices of the influential classes. I will 
give you an instance that has just happened. Last 
year I was attending the city Taotai for a bad attack 
of asthma ; the Viceroy had told him to send for me. 
While at his house one day he asked me to give his 
wife some medicine, as she was not well. She then 
made her appearance for the first time, but she was so 
timid and nervous that after just feeling her pulse she 
vanished like a scared rabbit, evidently thinking that I 
was a dreadfully strange creature, to whom it would be 
safe to give a wide berth. I suppose she had heard a 
lot of stories about foreign devils, as we are often called 
among themselves. At any rate, I could only make 
out that she had not much the matter with her ; but I 



222 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

sent her some sugar-coated tonic pills. The next 

time I was in the yamen I asked after Mrs. S . 

1 Oh, she was no better ! ' 'Had she taken the pills ? ' 
' Yes, but not all, as they tasted so nastily.' 

" Well, I couldn't stand that, as I knew they were 
tasteless pills, so I asked to see the box, and, behold, 
not one had been taken. She had been afraid to 
take them, but the people about couldn't in politeness 
say so. Hence I make a rule never to go out to any 
but very serious cases. Well, this month the official 
had a return of his asthma, and getting no relief sent 
for me, and I found him in a terrible condition ; 
fortunately I could relieve him. Some days later his 
wife had a bad attack of quinsey, and finding no 
native remedy help her, I was again consulted. This 
time she was too ill to run away, and thankfully 
attended to my instruction. I saw her frequently, and 
she daily improved. She now found that I was not 
such an ogre after all. When I saw her the last time, 
two days ago, she was quite well, and although her 
husband was out she invited me in, showing how 
entirely her dread was gone. She asked me a lot 
of questions about railways and telegraphs, — how 
quickly people could travel by railroad? when the 
telegraph was finished, how long would it take to 
send a message to her friends in Shanghai and 
get an answer back ? At last she asked me very 
innocently, ' Is it true that you foreign doctors take 
people's eyes out and put them back again ? ' And 
then answering herself, said, ' It is not true, is it ? ' 



EVANGELISTIC LABOURS, 223 

This lady, between twenty and thirty years of age, is 
the handsomest woman I have ever seen in China, and 
when her fear had gone was a perfect lady, and very 
intelligent. 

" Now this lady will in future put all her friends 
right about that strange creature, the foreign devil. 
Probably none but medical missionaries, and those 
only who have gained the confidence of this class, 
can influence for good in such quarters. 

" Now as old patients are leaving, they send up 
others from the country, or from other towns. One 
man named Li, who nine months ago entered the 
hospital nearly blind, and left it with sight, restored, 
arrived yesterday from his home, about forty li away, 
bringing with him a man who had crushed his hand 
between two junks. One half of the hand had to be 
amputated. 

" But to return to our friend Li. I have been 
thinking, during the past week, of engaging an evan- 
gelist to seek out the homes of old patients in the 
country, and strive to follow up the teachings they 
have received while in the hospital. The right man, 
a trusty, reliable Tien-tsin Christian, having been 
found, I have engaged him, and selected the village of 
the man Li for his first visit. A letter of introduction 
was written, and he was about to start, when who 
should arrive but Li himself, with the accident case. 
I found him delighted at the idea of the evangelist 
visiting his home. Said he, ' I have been preaching 
myself to my neighbours, and calling upon them to 



224 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

give up idolatry and worship the true God, and believe 
in Jesus ; but my knowledge is limited, and I cannot 
answer the questions they put to me.' I asked him 
if he prayed to God. ' No,' he replied, ' I have not 
the knowledge ; I can't make a prayer.' ' Is your 
father alive ? ' I asked. * No,' was his reply. ' Well, 
supposing he was, would you be able to converse with 
him, to tell him your difficulties and to seek his help ? ' 
' Of course I should ! ' ' Well, then, remember that 
God is your heavenly Father ; He does not want you 
to " make a prayer." He wants you to seek His help ; 
to reverentially converse with Him.' ' What ! ' said 
he, ' can I go down on my knees and tell God that 
I am a sinner, and ask Him to help me ; and can I 
ask Him to supply my needs ? ' ' Yes,' said I, ' plead- 
ing the name and merit of Christ, you can pray to 
God for what you want' ' Oh, then I understand,' 
he replied. ' I can pray now ! ' 

"To-day, in company with the evangelist, Li left 
Tien-tsin for home, taking tracts and Scriptures with 
them ; I trust that the Lord will greatly bless this 
effort. 

" A man named Ku, at present in hospital, has 
applied for baptism, and he appears very sincere, and 
a humble believer. Twenty years ago he heard the 
gospel in a chapel, and was greatly disturbed there- 
with ; but when the massacre took place he ran away 
to Pao-ting-fu, for fear he should get into trouble 
from being interested in the gospel. A month ago 
he consulted me at the temple dispensary for a 



E VANGELISTIC LAB URS. 225 

surgical affection. I sent him into the hospital for 
operation, and he has there learned, I trust, the truth 
as it is in Jesus, and believed. Many others amongst 
the in-patients are now seeking admission to the 
Church, so that we have much to be thankful for. 

" I believe the Viceroy to be thoroughly in earnest 
for the improvement of his country, but what can one 
man do against a host, even though the one man has 
extreme power? He cannot, at his bidding, change 
the institutions of his country ; and the whole system 
of government, from top to bottom, is rotten to the 
core. Nothing can save China but Christianity — a 
heart religion in place of a hollow morality ; therefore 
anything that tends to advance the cause of Christ in 
this land is of supreme importance. Once let China 
awake from her lethargy, moved by the Spirit of God, 
purified and in her right mind, and she will become a 
mighty power in the world. Her immense population, 
now kept within bounds by repeated famines, floods, 
and pestilences, under a new regime will grow and 
spread upon the face of the earth. Her enormous 
wealth will then be opened up, and the Chinese, 
naturally patient, hardworking, and astute, must 
become a mighty power. 

" Meanwhile, each has his own work to do, and, I 
trust, nay, I am quite sure, that here in Tien-tsin we 
are doing something towards the opening up and 
broadening out of the nation. I am daily meeting 
with Chinese who have never known foreigners before, 
and who will form their impressions, in a large 

15 



226 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



measure, from such meetings. What queer notions 
the best educated, according to Chinese ideas, have of 
us foreigners ! By-and-bye they will get to under- 
stand us. 

" What a mystery is the Christian Church in the 
world ! England owes everything that is pure, and 
virtuous, and truthful, to Christianity ; and yet, outside 
the missionary body in China, the number of foreign 
residents who pay much respect to religion is so small 
as hardly to compose a party. 

" Indeed, it is plain, and nowhere plainer than in 
China, that a man cannot keep himself. He must be 
obedient to some spiritual rule ; either, in his helpless- 
ness, he must flee into the arms of his Saviour for 
daily protection and guidance, or he will be led captive 
of the devil. There may be a middle state in England, 
but there is none such possible here. What a merciful 
Providence led me to China as a missionary ! " 



CHAPTER XT. 
CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 



Establishment of Medical School — Chinese Students from 
America — Examinations — A Chinese Debating Society — 
"Seven Years in China" — Visit of Corean Prince — 
Family Trials — Return to England — Deputation Work — 
Impressions made by Personal Character — Tour on 
Continent — Returns Alone to China — "Nevertheless 
Afterward" — A Great Earthquake — Riots in Canton — 
Additions to Medical School — Dr. Schoiield's Death — 
History of Trust Deed. 



CHAPTER XL 
CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 

DR. MACKENZIE'S hands seemed to be already 
so filled with all-engrossing labour in his unre- 
mitting care for the spiritual as well as the bodily needs 
of his patients, that to most minds it would have seemed 
almost an impossibility for him to attempt to carry 
on any additional form of work. And yet when the 
call of duty came to him, and he saw an open door 
leading to a sphere, as yet almost untouched by 
medical missionary effort, the Doctor gladly pressed 
forward to undertake the work, even though he knew 
how much of arduous labour it involved. 

In a letter to the Foreign Secretary of the London 
Missionary Society, Mackenzie thus describes the 
new branch of service which he had undertaken. 

" One interesting feature worthy of special remark 
has been the establishment of a small medical school 
during the past year. You will no doubt be aware 
that the Chinese government, about ten years ago, 
at the instigation of a few of their enlightened men, 
opened an educational mission in America. They 
selected from respectable families, chiefly in Canton 
and Shanghai, lads from ten to twelve years of age, 

229 



230 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

and, under the supervision of Mr. Yung Wing, placed 
them in the best schools of America. The senior 
students had all passed through the elementary schools, 
and had spent two years in college, when last year 
the mandate went forth from Peking recalling the 
whole mission. 

"This sudden action was due to certain reports 
having reached the Peking Foreign Office, to the 
effect that the students were throwing aside the 
manners and customs of their forefathers, and, in some 
cases, it was even feared were adopting not only foreign 
ideas, but also foreign religions. When I heard of 
their contemplated return I drew up a memorial, 
requesting the Viceroy to place eight of these students 
under my charge for the study of medicine and 
surgery, with a view to their being utilized eventually 
as medical officers by the Government. 

This proposition was agreed to, and upon the arrival 
of the students in Tien-tsin eight of them were accord- 
ingly handed over to my charge. 

" Being wholly under Christian influence, it is our 
earnest prayer that they may leave our hands en- 
lightened spiritually as well as medically. 

" Of course the establishment of this school, although 
so small at present, necessarily greatly increases my 
work ; but I felt that the opportunity was one that 
should not be missed We want to reach the educated 
classes of this land, and it is one way of doing so." 

Speaking of the desirability of commencing this 
medical school, the Doctor says : — 



CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 231 

" Of course it is beyond question that until the 
Chinese Government is prepared to establish a fully 
equipped medical college, with a complete staff of 
teachers, it would be better policy for them to send 
a batch of students to some European or American 
medical school for training. But it was evident that 
even our enlightened Viceroy was not prepared for 
such a step as this, and we therefore proposed a 
scheme likely to be sanctioned, rather than one that 
would inevitably have been shelved." 

A few days after, the Doctor writes : — 

" The scheme has been accepted. So the first 
Government medical school in China will now be 
started, in a small way at first ; yet it is a beginning. 
I shall have my hands full, however ; it is thought 
enough at home to lecture upon one subject, such as 
physiology ; but I shall have to teach subjects all 
round. Yet there was no withdrawing from the re- 
sponsibility, unless I was prepared to see things going 
on as they are, when I had it in my power to start a 
change in the right direction. In fact, I rather enjoy 
the idea of being compelled to tackle the subject, for 
I know that in teaching others I shall be best taught 
myself ; probably by next year the way will be open 
to enlarge the scheme, and get help from home ; but 
time will tell." 

Writing some years after, Dr. Mackenzie thus 
describes this medical school, and the progress it 
had made : — 

"The school was inaugurated on December 15th, 



232 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

1 88 1, under the Chinese title of the ' I-hsuch-kwan.' 
The students, having been brought up in cultured 
American homes and schools, had all received a good 
English education, and were trained to study. 

" The teaching is conducted much as general school 
work is done at home. Each pupil, having his own 
class books, prepares a given amount, and is examined 
in it daily, while his instructor explains and illustrates 
the text. For the first set of students the teaching 
was mainly in my hands, though for a period of eight 
months Dr. Atterbury of Peking had the entire charge 
and instruction of them, he having in the most generous 
way given his services in a time of great need. And 
well nigh without an exception, most of the medical 
officers belonging to the American and English navies 
resident in the port of Tien-tsin during the winter 
months, have rendered valuable help in the training 
of the pupils. Examinations have been held three 
times a year, in the presence of H. E. the Customs 
Taotai, and an English-speaking official appointed by 
the Viceroy, and conducted by independent medical 
men, both orally and by written papers. At the 
examinations, especially the important ones consti- 
tuting the ' Primary ' and ' Pass,' the former held at 
the completion of eighteen months of almost con- 
tinuous study, and the latter at the end of the curri- 
culum, the school has been indebted to Drs. Frazer 
and Irwin, whose ready sympathy and kindly help on 
so many occasions I cannot too gratefully acknow- 
ledge. These gentlemen, together with the naval 



CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 233 

officers above mentioned, and any medical missionaries 
staying for the time being in Tien-tsin, have constituted 
the Board of Examiners. The certificates given at the 
primary examination of the first class were signed by, 
Andrew Irwin, Customs Medical Officer, Tien-tsin ; 
Arthur G. Cabell, P.A., Surgeon U. S. Navy ; Thomas 
Edward H. Williams, Surgeon Royal Navy, as ex- 
aminers ; and by John Kenneth Mackenzie, Medical 
Officer, Viceroy's Hospital, as tutor." 

" I do not value this branch of work so much from 
the medical side," the Doctor writes to a friend in 
England. " If it merely meant training surgeons for 
the Chinese Government I would give it up. I value it 
as a rare means of influencing these educated young 
men from a Christian standpoint. My hands are left 
perfectly free by the Viceroy, and the young men are 
entirely under my charge." 

Later on he writes : — 

" The work is very interesting and instructive to 
myself. We have a Debating Society every Saturday 
evening, when we take up a variety of topics for 
discussion. ' Which was the greater man, Caesar or 
Napoleon ? ' was the subject of one debate. The 
meeting decided in favour of Caesar. On another 
occasion, whether Paul was greater than Moses was 
discussed, and the larger number of votes was given 
to Moses. On Sunday a very successful class of 
students meets in my house to discuss, or rather to 
search, the Scriptures. They have certainly a clear 
knowledge of the gospel, and in the case of two zX 



234 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

least we feel assured a spiritual change has come 
about. 

" While I enjoy the work among the students, and 
feel that it is a field we can so seldom enter upon 
in China, namely, getting into close contact with the 
highly educated, and thus influencing them, as I trust 
God is enabling us to do, in some measure, in every 
case, yet it sorely taxes my time. Anatomy, physio- 
logy, medicine, surgery, besides the allied branches, to 
be all taught by one individual means incessant study 
for oneself. Of course I am getting repaid again and 
again in clearer knowledge, and in the rich pleasure 
which is derived from work of almost any kind if 
useful." 

It will be seen that the life Dr. Mackenzie was 
living was indeed a busy one. Not only had he the 
sole care of the hospital, constantly filled with patients, 
resting upon him, and the after-strain of watching 
over numberless cases where serious operations had 
been performed ; he was also, as some one has said, 
" a whole medical faculty in himself," having the 
entire care of training the medical students ; and it 
was also his joy and delight to occupy his spare 
moments with the evangelistic work which ever lay 
so near his heart. He was at the same time in robust 
health, and his heart was gladdened with the news 
that his wife was restored to health again, and that 
she, with their little daughter, was hoping to join him 
in the autumn. 

"I was never better than I am at present," he 



CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 235 

writes; " I attribute it largely to early rising and taking 
active exercise on horseback. This is my only re- 
creation, and I come back feeling fit for any amount 
of work. One of our prominent medical writers, 
Lauder Brunton, said lately in the Practitioner that 
1 the best thing for the inside of a man was the outside 
of a horse,' and there is a lot of sound philosophy in 
the remark ; I can testify from personal experience." 

The Doctor suffered a severe bereavement in the 
removal by death of his beloved mother towards the 
end of 1 88 1, and writing to his aged father, who was 
greatly desiring to see his son once more, in a letter 
dated August 25th, 1882, he says : — 

" This is my birthday, so I must write you a line. 
I am thirty-two years old to-day, having spent over 
seven years in China. This is a good slice out of my 
life, and I heartily wish I could have found it possible, 
after so long an absence, to visit home and see all 
your dear faces again. I cannot help thinking of dear 
mother, for to-morrow was her birthday, and the two 
days coming so closely together always led me 
to think especially of her dear face at such a time 
as this. 

" The hospital work goes on as actively as ever, and 
the little medical school keeps me busy. Truth is 
being made known to numbers who seek, in the first 
place, only medical help. Mission work in China is 
all uphill work ; this one must expect after getting 
some knowledge of the national character. Yet, 
nevertheless, genuine and necessary work is being 



236 John Kenneth Mackenzie. 

done, and will tell in the long run. The more 1 
know of the Chinese, especially of their educated 
men, the more I feel that there is a mine of wealth 
here. The leaven will take long to spread, but it 
is already at work. The inhabitants of the Pacific 
Islands are rapidly influenced in comparison with the 
Chinese, but though the process here will be. slower, 
it will be far mightier in results." 

In a later letter to his brother the Doctor says : — 
" I have had a visit this morning from a Corean 
prince and suite. He is now in Tien-tsin arranging 
the Japan-Corean difficulty, and was sent by the 
Viceroy to consult me, and also to see the hospital 
as one of the sights of Tien-tsin. He is a fine gentle- 
manly man, very sedate and composed. I showed 
him the house, and Laura Lees and Gertie Stanley 
played a duet on the piano for him. He looked, 
too, at some photographs under the microscope, and 
was greatly surprised to see a little spot develop into 
fifty persons in full uniform, for one of the photographs 
was the Duke of Wellington and staff. He also saw 
models and a human skeleton for the first time." 

It was in November of this year that Dr. Mackenzie 
went down to Shanghai to meet his wife, who had 
been, with their little daughter, residing in England 
for more than eighteen months, in the hope that the 
climate of her native land would restore her to health 
again. The medical reports had been very favourable, 
and it was with much satisfaction that Dr. Mackenzie 
looked forward to having his lonely China home once 



CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 237 

more gladdened by the presence of wife and child. 
These bright hopes were, however, doomed to dis- 
appointment, and when the Doctor met his beloved 
wife again, after the long period of separation, he 
found that during the voyage more serious symptoms 
had developed themselves, and it seemed very doubtful 
whether it would be possible for her to remain in 
China. Some of the medical men in Shanghai thought 
it likely that after the long voyage the quiet and rest 
of her own home might prove beneficial to the invalid. 

So, as he said himself, "hoping almost against 
hope," Dr. Mackenzie journeyed northwards with his 
sick wife and little child. In a very short time, how- 
ever, it became clear that it was absolutely necessary 
for Mrs. Mackenzie to return to England, and her 
state of health was so serious that her husband and 
all their friends in the mission felt it was his duty to 
accompany her. 

It was with a sad heart that the Doctor made 
arrangements for leaving, for as short a period as 
possible, the work he so dearly loved, and the little 
daughter, who had been taken into the motherly care 
of Mrs. Lees. The Doctor and his wife sailed for 
England in the Glenavon, which left Shanghai on 
December 7th, and after a very long voyage arrived 
in London on February 18th, 1883. 

Dr. Mackenzie only remained five months in 
England, and during a considerable portion of that 
time was busily engaged in deputation work in 
various parts of the country. He visited Gloucester, 



238 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Cheltenham, Reading, Haverfordwest, Dorking, Hull, 
Nottingham, and various parts of London. 

He occupied the pulpits of the principal Congrega- 
tional Churches of these places on the Sundays, and 
greatly interested the people by the story of how God 
had so wonderfully answered prayer and provided for 
all the needs of the Tien-tsin Medical Mission. This 
visit home, though shadowed by the heavy sorrow of 
his wife's continued illness, was a source of great 
interest and pleasure to large numbers of Christian 
people, whose memory of his work and noble character 
is still vivid and affectionately cherished. 

" I wish that my recollection of the details of Dr. 
Mackenzie's visit were as full and accurate as my 
impression of his character is clear and strong," 
writes a friend, whose guest he was during a visit 
to his city. " His earnestness, sincerity, humility, 
and loving faith were unmistakable. He did not 
enjoy the Sunday preaching, which was part of his 
deputation work here, but he had large and inter- 
ested congregations. Every one to whom I have 
spoken seems to remember all the services with 
interest, and to have been deeply impressed by Dr. 
Mackenzie's personality. I shall never forget one 
striking instance of his humility. He was the last 
speaker at a crowded missionary meeting, which had 
gone on rather quietly, when he began, and raised the 
large audience to a perfect glow of enthusiasm. Im- 
mediately afterwards he said to me how much he 
wished that people knew and cared more about the 



CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 239 

missionary work. I, speaking out of the fulness of 
my heart, replied, ' They soon would if we had more 
speeches like that.' He instantly answered, in quite 
a pained voice, ' Oh, don't say that ; you would not if 
you knew.' I could not but feel grieved to have 
wounded him, but it was true. If he was only the 
instrument, there was such a large measure of the 
power that cometh from above that none were un- 
moved. I think the charm of Dr. Mackenzie's life 
lay partly in its unity. Apparently there were no 
contending forces. Absolute self-abnegation left room 
for humility, love, and trust. Medical work was done 
as carefully as though the issues depended upon that 
alone ; but the prayer of faith was as earnest as that 
of any of the so-called ' faith healers.'" 

Another lady, a member of Streatham Hill Con- 
gregational Church, after writing in similar terms of 
her impression of Dr. Mackenzie's character, continues : 
" I remember quite well that the elder boys in my 
class were so interested, that two of them told me how 
they should like to go back with him to China to 
learn surgery and do mission work as well. He had 
told them of a Chinese young men's class he had in 
training, to help him in the hospital when they were 
fit for it." 

Before returning to his work in China Dr. 
Mackenzie, in company with his brother, took a trip 
on the Continent. They visited Antwerp, Brussels, 
and Cologne ; gazed upon the beauties of Lakes 
Lucerne and Zurich, and wandered among the Swiss 



240 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

valleys and glorious mountain peaks. This tour 
seems to have been a source of great delight and 
enjoyment to the Doctor. He returned to England 
by the middle of July, and on the 31st of that month 
set sail alone for China in the S^S. Glencoe. Mrs. 
Mackenzie's state of health seemed to indicate that it 
would not be possible for her, for a considerable time, 
if ever, to return to the East. This separation from 
his wife, and the consequent breaking up of his home, 
was the sorrow which saddened all Mackenzie's after 
life. No trial, perhaps, could have been harder to bear 
to one whose nature was so deeply affectionate, and 
who felt that God had so clearly called him to carry 
on the medical work in Tien-tsin, and had blessed that 
work with such special marks of Divine favour ; yet, 
as is so often the case, when the heart has learned 
the blessed secret of casting all earthly sorrows on an 
unseen yet ever-living Redeemer, the chastisement 
yielded afterwards the peaceable fruits of righteous- 
ness, and did much towards the development and 
making of his spiritual life, while his personal griefs 
only made him better able to enter into the sorrows 
of others. 

The voyage seems to have been, on the whole, a 
favourable one, although intense heat was experienced 
in the Red Sea, and somewhat rough weather in the 
Indian Ocean. 

" We are a very happy party," he writes to his 
brother. " I should hardly have thought a sea voyage 
would have gone so pleasantly. The doctor is a 



CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 241 

good fellow, and I like him much. I finished the 
eighth volume of Froude this morning ; I have 
greatly enjoyed it, and have obtained quite a new- 
idea of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. It is plea- 
santly written too, and not too dry for reading on 
ship board." 

" You will have heard by telegraph," he writes in 
the China Sea, " that there has been a frightful earth- 
quake in Java, and over a radius of fifty miles. The 
shock was felt at Singapore, a distance of six hundred 
miles. One island, thirteen miles round, with a 
mountain three thousand feet high, has disappeared. 
The whole aspect of the coast has been quite altered, 
and lighthouses have been destroyed, so that captains 
are notified that navigation will not be safe until the 
whole district has been again surveyed and fresh 
charts drawn out. 

" An Australian steamer lying next to us in 
Singapore reported passing through floating corpses 
in every direction. The shock was accompanied by 
two enormous tidal waves, the waters rising a height 
of seventy feet, and carrying everything away before 
them. One English lady was saved by being lodged 
in the top of a high cocoanut tree. The number of 
deaths is estimated at thirty thousand." 

On September 12th he continues : — 

" Here we are at Hong-Kong, after a very stormy 
day and night. We were in the wake of a typhoon 
all day yesterday. They tell us here that a typhoon 
has lasted three days, but is now over. All the 

16 



242 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

shipping in harbour is made firm with many 
anchors. 

" As we have to stay three days here I thought of 
spending the time by going up to Canton, but I find 
by the papers that a riot took place there two days 
ago, a plot to murder the Europeans having been got 
up ; so I won't go yet." 

He decided afterwards to go to Canton, however, in 
company with Dr. Chalmers, and thus describes the 
state of matters there : — 

" The English settlement was in ruins ; that is, out 
of thirty handsome buildings fifteen were totally 
destroyed by fire and others had been looted. The 
mob had risen and done this damage to property. 
The cause of the rising was said to be the brutality 
of some rough Englishman. There is generally some 
such cause to account for these riots. One Chinaman 
had been shot by an Englishman, and within a few 
days another man was pushed or kicked from an 
English steamer lying at Canton, and falling into the 
water, was drowned. When this second death occurred 
the mob saturated the wharf with kerosene oil, and 
then set fire to it, in the hope of igniting the steamer, 
but she got away into the stream. 

"In a mad rage the crowd broke up a kerosene 
depot, and carried off tins of the inflammable oil to 
the English settlement, and very shortly fifteen houses, 
with all their contents, had been utterly destroyed. 
By the time troops had arrived from the camp the 
mob had entirely disappeared. It is a marvel that no 



CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 243 

European lives were lost. The residents, men and 
women, had to escape as best they could to the 
steamers. We dined with the Consul, whose house 
was untouched. The mob came into his grounds, 
when he immediately lowered his flag, and they, 
seeing the flag, left his house, evidently fearing to 
involve the Government too far. The London Mis- 
sion houses in the settlement were looted, but not fired, 
and the other missionary houses in the native city 
were untouched. Dr. Kerr has had a Mission hospital 
for many years in one part of the city, and there are 
three Mission houses there. When the news of the 
rising came the Chinese neighbours collected, and 
barricaded the streets to keep away the mob if they 
attempted to attack the property, but they made no 
attempt to interfere with any of the Mission houses in 
the city. 

" A letter was awaiting me at Hong-Kong from Lees, 
giving me all news, and saying that Maggie was in the 
best of health and spirits. He enclosed a letter from 
the Tien-tsin Taotai, asking me to try and find four 
English-speaking students to join our medical school, 
and sending me an introduction to the head of the 
Hong-Kong Central School, a large Government insti- 
tution in connection with the colony. The offer was 
made, and I selected four from eleven applicants. 
They are to follow me as soon as the permission of 
the governor has been obtained. Upon my arrival in 
Hong-Kong I heard a most sad piece of news. Dr. 
Schofield died of typhus fever very suddenly in Tai- 



244 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

yuen-fu. It is one of the most painful pieces of news 
I could have heard. He was such a splendid man, 
and so useful in his position there." 

Dr. Mackenzie arrived in Tien-tsin on September 
25th, and found a letter awaiting him from the 
widow of the lamented Dr. Schoneld. In it she says : 
" He sent to you, as to all his friends, his loving fare- 
well, and this one verse of a hymn, — 

* A little while for winning souls to Jesus, 
Ere we behold His beauty face to face ; 
A little while for healing soul diseases, 
By telling others of a Saviour's grace.' " 

The little daughter whom Dr. Mackenzie rejoined 
in China remained under the kind care of Mrs. Lees, 
and was the solace of his rare intervals of leisure, for 
the Doctor soon found himself, as formerly, over- 
whelmed with work on all sides. 

In December 1883, some three months after his 
return to Tien-tsin, the Doctor writes to his brother : — 

" I am busily occupied with work ; in fact, I have no 
spare time to speak of, yet I enjoy it, and though low- 
spirited at times, I am very happy. The Christian 
work goes on very, very slowly here in the north, but 
our duty is to continue and to persevere in faith." 

With relation to the troubles in Tonquin between 
the French and Chinese the Doctor writes : — 

" The war news continues very threatening, but I 
am still doubtful whether anything will come out of it. 
We are closed in for the winter from the outer world, 



CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOL. 245 

and probably this will be the last letter sent from 
Taku this year. 

" Last week I made a trust deed, with the aid of our 
Consul, placing seven thousand taels (^2,000) on trust 
as a reserve fund for our hospital, to be used (the 
interest only) in the work of Christian Medical Mis- 
sions. It is bound down by careful stipulation, so 
that it cannot be used for other objects. Mr. Lees 
and myself are the first trustees. 

" This money, as you know, I had received from the 
Chinese, and thought it better to arrange it legally, in 
case of any changes coming about. The deed I have 
sent to the London Missionary Society for them to 
keep in charge. No doubt the value of property in 
Tien-tsin will increase vastly when foreign improve- 
ments are fully introduced in this, the port of the 
capital. So that in making these arrangements I am 
looking forward to the interest some day being very 
large, say in fifty years time, for China, I am con- 
vinced, has a great future before her." 



CHAPTER XIL 
SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 



Success of Students — Doubts about Medical School — Views 
Regarding Country Work — Spiritual Results in Medical 
School — An Imperial Decoration — Striking Instance of 
Conversion — Prayer Answered — A Self-Supporting 
Chinese Evangelist — Evangelistic Work in Hospital 
Wards — Visit of the Cambridge Party — "A Time of 
Great Joy " — " Healed by Prayer ' ' — Discipline in 
Medical School — Students' Prayer Meeting — A Chinese 
Naval Officer — Requests for United Prayer — Sickness — ■ 
Visit to Taku — A Chinese Letter — Dr. Mackenzie's Bible 
Class — Hunger after Spiritual Things — Washing the 
Nets — "More Christianity than Medicine!" — Peace 
Restored. 



CHAPTER XIL 
SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 

IN October of the year 1884 six of the first batch 
of students in the Tien-tsin medical school passed 
their final examination, after three years' study, and 
received diplomas. 

The Viceroy obtained for these men the favour of 
civil instead of military rank, and gave the head 
student a crystal button, while on the remaining five 
was conferred slightly lower rank with white buttons. 
In a land like China this was a matter of considerable 
importance, since it affected so materially the social 
position of the recipient. 

Writing some time after to a Chinese medical 
journal, Dr. Mackenzie gives an interesting account 
of the after-career of these young surgeons, exemplify- 
ing the many difficulties which obstruct the path of 
progress in this land. 

" We want no experiments," he writes, " to show us 
that Chinese youths are capable of acquiring a scien- 
tific education ; what we do want is some evidence 
that the powers that be will appreciate it when 
obtained. 

249 



2$0 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

" The head of the class was permanently appointed 
to the school and hospital, and renders valuable assist- 
ance both in the instruction of students and the 
treatment of patients. A second was for some time 
attached to the medical school, but he now holds the 
position of medical officer to the new military college 
in Tien-tsin, where he has the oversight of some two 
hundred students. This is a good appointment, but 
is unfortunately underpaid. A third was placed at 
the service of General Chow, who has the command of 
a body of troops said to number fifteen thousand, en- 
camped some twenty miles from Tien-tsin. Soon after 
he had joined the general's staff, an interesting though 
curious and possibly unique experience awaited him. 
At the central camp, where the general's headquarters 
were located, there resided a native doctor, who pro- 
fessed to treat upon foreign principles, but his practice 
fell sadly short of his profession, indeed it was of the 
most elementary kind, consisting in the administration 
of a few simple drugs, backed up by much skill in 
rhetoric. He had the faculty of adapting his medi- 
cines to the theoretic notions of his patients, which 
is in China a great gift. 

" The question arose, should the newly-arrived man 
be retained at headquarters and the old occupant 
of the post be removed to another camp, or should 
the new-comer be placed elsewhere ? A brilliant idea 
originated in the mind of the great man. He him- 
self, aided by the other red-buttoned generals under 
his command, would sit as a sort of court of inquiry 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 25 i 

and investigate into the respective abilities of each. 
The order went forth, and on a fixed day, under a 
canvas pavilion erected for the occasion, the generals 
and colonels, attended by their respective staffs — and 
even a colonel requires a staff in China — assembled 
in full paraphernalia, and seated themselves in order 
of precedence. The two unfortunate medicos were 
then called in, and before this august assembly, and 
in the presence of each other, underwent an examina- 
tion, the court putting the questions and deciding 
the verdict. Each candidate for the favour of the 
court was expected to show all he knew ; but con- 
sidering that one of the parties was an astute man 
of the world, of fifty odd summers, equally conversant 
with Chinese etiquette and with Chinese ideas of 
anatomy and disease, while the other had not long 
entered upon man's estate, whose knowledge of 
human nature was drawn from the standpoint of the 
American youth of the nineteenth century, while his 
anatomical and medical learning, though agreeing 
with that of the Western schools, differed in toto 
from the innate knowledge held by his examiners, 
the result may readily be imagined. The elder was 
adjudged the victor, and was retained at his post, 
while the younger was placed at a small cavalry 
camp some distance away. The examiners, scarce 
one of whom could read or write, as became men who 
have to wield the sword rather than the pen, returned 
to their quarters, satisfied, no doubt, that they had 
upheld the dignity of their country. This surgeon 



2$2 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



is, however, comfortably situated, having better allow- 
ances than any of his fellow-students, and complaining 
chiefly that he has too little to do. 

" A fourth entered the navy, and is now surgeon on 
board one of the cruisers ; but he is greatly dis- 
satisfied with his position. He sees the executive 
officers and engineers, many of them his old com- 
rades in America, promoted in rank and pay, while 
he remains stationary, with no prospect of his position 
improving unless a war breaks out. 

" When they leave the hospital each successful 
student is provided with a good set of surgical 
instruments and a supply of drugs sufficient to start 
him with. 

" The fifth was appointed to a camp in the northern 
part of the coast. While his drugs lasted he was 
very popular. He opened a dispensary, and had 
numerous patients daily, but when in course of time 
his stock began to diminish, and he applied to the 
general under whose charge he was placed for a 
fresh supply, his difficulties commenced. He was 
urged to write and get more drugs from his old 
hospital, and every imaginable excuse was invented, 
but no money was forthcoming for supplies. Then 
it was alleged that Chinese doctoring was cheaper 
than foreign, and it was discovered that a relative 
of the general's was a native doctor in the camp. 
By-and-bye his original stock gave out, and his 
dispensary had to be closed. For several months he 
was idle. He appealed to me for help, and I did 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 253 

what I could for him. Finally his relations with his 
commanding officer became so strained, that he 
begged to be removed to another position, and his 
request being granted, he was transferred to the navy. 
Here again he found that things did not run 
smoothly, so some months ago he sought and obtained 
leave of absence, from which he has not returned. 
I heard later that he had received, through the help 
of friends, the position of interpreter to one of China's 
consulates abroad. 

" The sixth was likewise attached to the navy, but 
after serving for some eighteen months, he too 
retired upon plea of leave of absence, and obtained 
a more congenial situation ashore 

"Thus two out of the six who completed their 
course have, for the time being, abandoned their pro- 
fession ; yet I believe that in both cases they would 
prefer, under more favourable circumstances, to con- 
tinue the practice of medicine. But they have to 
contend against many real difficulties. In the first 
place, the pay is too meagre ; it averages about tls. 30 
a month ; and such men find they can command 
larger salaries in comfortable business positions on 
land. Then, again, trouble commences whenever 
they have to draw allowances for drugs, etc., from 
their commanding officer. A Chinese doctor's services 
can be obtained for about tls. 7 a month, while the 
patient pays for his own medicines, thus relieving 
the mandarin of the obligation of disbursing these 
payments. 



254 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

" In the navy especially the raison d'etre of the 
surgeon's presence is hardly yet recognized. The 
crew of a ship of war is presumably composed of 
able-bodied men, so that in times of peace the post 
of surgeon on board, even in Western navies, is not 
a very arduous one ; but he is there in readiness for 
the exigencies of war. Now the average Chinese 
captain fails to grasp this idea. He sees the surgeon 
drawing his pay and having perhaps an easy time of 
it, and he cannot possibly see the necessity of his 
presence. It is too far for him to look ahead and 
contemplate the value of the help to be given by 
trained men in times of warfare. Viewing the 
medical man, therefore, somewhat in the light of a use- 
less loafer, is it to be wondered at that the latter's 
position on board becomes far from enviable, and 
ceasing to esteem it an honour to serve king and 
country, he takes the first favourable opportunity of 
retiring from the Service? 

"Things will not work smoothly and satisfaction 
prevail until the Government establishes a distinct 
department for its medical officers, allowing them to 
draw supplies from central depots, and arranging 
a fair scale of salaries and promotion, which will give 
stability to the service and a career to the men." 

It was at the end of 1884 that, under the stress of 
difficulties with France and the possibility of war 
being pushed forward into North China, the Viceroy 
determined upon the addition of a larger number 
of students to the school ; twelve young men were 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 255 

obtained from the Hong-Kong Central School, and 
commenced their studies in Tien-tsin. 

His Excellency was extremely anxious that the 
young men's residence should be in close proximity 
to the Doctor, so that he might be able to have con- 
stant oversight of them. He accordingly made a 
grant for transforming the hospital wards into separate 
sleeping and class-rooms for students, and at the same 
time built, on the opposite side of the road, a fine new 
hospital, to accommodate fifty-five in-patients, and 
handed it over to Dr. Mackenzie. 

" The new building is a great improvement upon 
the old one," he writes, " for during the last four 
years I have gained experience of the sort of thing 
we want in Tien-tsin, and so was able to work in 
improvements." 

From a letter written to the Board at home at this 
period we find that the Doctor's mind had been much 
exercised as to the advisability or otherwise of this 
step. 

" I have been a good deal concerned of late," he 
writes, " as to my duty in regard to medical teaching. 
The Directors are probably aware that these students 
are intended for Government service. Now I would 
not wish to spend my time in merely raising up a 
band of surgeons for the Chinese Government, and 
since this autumn the first batch of students have 
completed their three years' term, I thought it would 
be a good opportunity for gradually drawing out of 
the work, and so I should be enabled to devote, more 



256 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

time to direct evangelistic labour. On the other 
hand, most of my friends have strongly urged me to 
continue the school, considering it to be one of the 
best forms of missionary effort. I have been led, 
finally, to see that this is my line of duty, at any rate 
for the present. Some of the reasons that have 
influenced me are as follows : — 

"(i) The slow progress and very limited success, 
at present, of direct evangelistic work in North 
China. 

"(2) The extreme difficulty of reaching, through 
preaching, the educated youth of China. 

" (3) That in the Providence of God these educated 
young men have been placed under my charge with- 
out any restrictions or limitations, and so can be 
instructed in and influenced by Christian truth. Of 
the present class four are Christians, while others 
are well inclined, and attend our Bible class with 
regularity. The Christians hold a daily morning 
prayer-meeting together. 

" Our senior student, Mr. Lin, has already received 
his appointment as one of the assistant-masters. 

" One other reason for the continuance of this class. 
I look upon the country stations as the most hopeful 
part of the North China Mission. The simple-minded 
peasants of the interior are drawn to accept the 
gospel far more readily than their acuter yet worldly- 
minded fellow-countrymen in the large towns. Now 
I am hoping, that with two well-qualified, English- 
taught Chinese doctors attached to the hospital, I 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 257 

shall be able to get away once or twice each year 
for a month's visit to our country stations, and so 
help along my brethren in this most hopeful field. 
Without the help of my old pupils I should be, as 
before, tied to the hospital. Every expense in con- 
nection with the teaching department is borne by the 
Chinese officials in the most liberal manner, and their 
interest in our hospital continues to be kept up. I 
feel especially thankful for the increased measure 
of success which has followed the evangelistic work 
in connection with our in-patients during the past 
year. As the object of our united effort is the winning 
of the Chinese for Christ, it is not desirable, I think, 
to attempt too closely to count up how many converts 
come from one branch and how many from another 
branch of our Mission. You will be glad to know, 
however, that Mr. Lees has already, during the five 
months of the present year, baptized more converts 
than during the whole of last year. 

" Referring again to the Hospital Reserve Fund, 
I would first mention that since the deed was drawn 
up I have been able to add tls. 1,000. This makes the 
Fund now amount in all to tls. 8,000. I don't think 
it would be a desirable thing to accumulate too largt. 
an endowment for the hospital ; indeed, I have long 
hoped that the interest might soon be applied to the 
payment of my salary as medical missionary in charge 
of the hospital, and so relieve the Directors to this 
extent." 

He goes on, however, to explain that another 

17 



258 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

proposal has been under consideration by his col- 
leagues, i.e., that in the coming spring the Directors 
should appoint a medical missionary for the country 
stations, to work in connection with the Tien-tsin 
committee. This work of training successive classes 
of young men in medicine and surgery, which, it has 
been seen, was not undertaken without much heart- 
searching and prayer for guidance, was not without 
signs of blessing from the Master's hand. 

" We have several bright Christians in the school," 
writes the Doctor towards the end of 1885. "Two of 
those who came here as heathen have been baptized 
by Mr. Lees in the native church. Three others are 
the sons of Christian parents, and were baptized as in- 
fants, two of them in connection with the Hong-Kong 
Church." Of another he writes : " His spiritual life 
has grown very much since coming here, and he is 
now an aggressive Christian." Somewhat later he 
writes : " Another of our students has been added to 
the praying band. It is truly a precious privilege 
to watch souls expand and grow. Our Christian 
medical students are in the hot glow of their first love ; 
the study of the Word of God is their joy. Sunday 
evening after service we are together going through 
Hebrews, comparing scripture with scripture ; it is 
very enjoyable. There is much cause for rejoicing as 
one looks back upon the year that is past." 

In recognition of the abundant services so freely 
rendered to the students of the medical school, His 
Excellency the Viceroy having mentioned the matter 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 259 

in a memorial to the throne, the Emperor was pleased 
to confer upon Dr. Mackenzie an Imperial decoration, 
" The Star of the Order of the Double Dragon," with 
a Chinese commission. Writing at this time to his 
brother, the Doctor says : — 

" It is a special order, which was instituted some 
years ago for bestowal on foreigners. It is called a 
star, though it is more square than round. It is made 
of gold, with a precious stone set in the centre ; this 
stone is blue, and corresponds with the blue button 
worn by mandarins, and surrounding the stone are two 
dragons. 

" There are six characters on the front of it, two 
meaning ' Double Dragon/ two meaning ' Precious 
Star,' and two more ' Presented by the Emperor.' It 
was accompanied by an embroidered ribbon, to be 
worn with it, and the whole was encased in an ebony 
cabinet, with a despatch to explain the reason of the 
gift. It is kindly meant and a gracious gift, and as 
such I value it. In Chinese official society, too, it 
gives me a certain rank, which is not to be despised 
by one living and working here." 

The hospital's power as a gospel agency was grow- 
ing year by year. Dr. Mackenzie's bright example 
acted as an inspiration to the hospital workers, 
binding them together as fellow-labourers in the 
Lord, their one desire being to lead to Christ those 
who came within its walls. 

" One of our helpers is, I think, a striking instance 
of a man born again — born from above," writes the 



260 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Doctor. " His name is Yang Ming, and he comes 
from the province of Shan-tung. He came to us some 
two years ago suffering from an enormous tumour of 
the scalp — elephantiasis arabum. It had existed 
since childhood. He could do no work, could get 
very little sleep, and latterly suffered much pain from 
pressure of the tumour on the upper part of the spine. 
He had received no sort of education, and, with his 
peculiar deformity, had a very repulsive and animal- 
like appearance. Speaking his local patois, it was 
difficult to understand him, and he seemed scarcely 
capable of taking in an idea. Well, the tumour was 
removed in three operations, at intervals of a month 
or so, it being unwise, from the large base of the 
tumour and the great loss of blood, to remove it at 
one sitting. He necessarily remained in the wards 
for a long time, and when he was quite well we offered 
to engage him as a helper in the wards. He had 
undergone not only a physical but an intellectual and 
spiritual change of a very marked kind. His soul, of 
the possession of which he was not aware when he 
came, is clearly alive in him, and his mind, so long 
torpid, has awoke to consciousness. It is now a 
pleasure to hear him speak about spiritual things, and 
[ to see how he has been taught of the Spirit of God. 
Of course he makes many mistakes, and often gets 
out of his depth, but what young believer does not ? 

" Another striking answer to prayer was when, in 
1884, God sent me Chang-Yung-mao as a dispenser. 
I had been praying for a dispenser, but especially 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 261 

one sent of God, who should do work for Him. This 
young Christian was in Mr. Lees' theological training 
school, and was led to volunteer for dispensary work. 
Since joining us he has thrown new life into the 
evangelistic work among the in-patients, stimulating 
the paid evangelist, who gives his whole time to this 
department, by his zeal and faith. Though his work 
is that of a dispenser, he devotes his spare time to 
Christian work. It is telling grandly, and God is 
blessing him richly in his own soul. I thank God 
there is an aroma of prayer about the place. 

" We now make definite prayer that the Lord will 
send to the hospital, for the patients come from several 
hundred miles around, those whom He is calling from 
among this people. A Christian brother is engaged 
in visiting the homes of those who have shown an 
interest in Christian truth while in the hospital." 

This man, by name Chang-Yung-tsing, is thus 
referred to in the report of another member of the 
Mission, written at the same time : — 

" A large number of those baptized in recent 
years have been men who came from a distance to 
the hospital as in-patients, and who, on returning 
home, were lost sight of. To remedy this state of 
things, Dr. Mackenzie personally employed a Chris- 
tian for a few months in visiting these scattered 
disciples. Then the Church took the matter up, and 
by an additional number of monthly contributions, 
and being relieved of the payment of the chapel- 
keeper, they undertook to support a travelling preacher. 



262 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Their choice fell unanimously upon a man who, many 
years ago, was an agent of the Society, but who soon 
gave it up, choosing, like Paul, to be above all sus- 
picion as to his motives for preaching the gospel. 
Since then he has been a voluntary labourer, going 
up and down the country proclaiming everywhere the 
forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus, and has been 
the means of planting the gospel in several villages. 
A man with the use only of one eye, and a most 
unprepossessing appearance, uncouth in dress and 
speech, and naturally of a most stubborn temper, he 
is possessed of a warm heart, full of love to Christ and 
the souls of men, and though belonging to the illiterate 
class, has by diligence acquired an extensive acquaint- 
ance with the Word of God, which is more to him 
than his daily food. The only fear which was enter- 
tained in selecting Chang-Yung-tsing was, that in 
his love of freedom he might refuse even to become 
the servant of the native Church. However, a friendly 
invitation being addressed to him, he came to Tien-tsin 
and accepted the call." 

From the earliest days of his life in China Dr. 
Mackenzie's aim had ever been to give prominence to 
the evangelistic side of hospital work, and not to be 
satisfied with the mere healing of the bodily diseases 
of his patients. And as the years passed on it was 
evident to all that this thought was becoming more 
and more the ruling principle of all his work, and this 
was especially noticeable during the last two or three 
years of his life. 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 263 

At about this time he gives the following account 
of the evangelistic work carried on in the wards : — 

" Let me tell you something of the direct missionary- 
work of the hospital. We have a Scripture reader, 
paid out of the hospital funds, who devotes his whole 
time to Christian teaching among the patients. His 
great work is that of teaching the catechism, for our 
patients, when they enter, with very rare exceptions, 
have not even heard the name of God. Many of 
them cannot read, and he, therefore, instructs those 
who are willing to learn, so that when they leave quite 
a large number who did not know a character of the 
written language can read in the catechism the 
fundamental truths of the gospel. I conduct every 
morning, excepting on Sundays, a Bible class among 
the in-patients and employees of the hospital and 
dispensary. It lasts for from three-quarters of an hour 
to an hour, commencing in winter at 8.15, and finishing 
at 9 or 9.15." 

Writing of this meeting some time afterwards, the 
Doctor says : — 

"We make it as conversational as possible, by 
asking and soliciting questions, and inducing as many 
as are willing to take part. On Tuesday evenings we 
hold a class, in which we try to gather up the work of 
the week, ' drawing up the gospel net,' as it has been 
well termed, and on Friday evenings there is a special 
meeting for the helpers and other Christians for 
prayer and the study of the Scriptures, the medical 
missionary being the leader at these various classes." 



264 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

In April 1885 Dr. Mackenzie made the acquaint- 
ance of Messrs. Stanley Smith, Hoste, and Cassels, 
who stayed at Tien-tsin for several days, en route to 
Peking. 

" We have had delightful meetings for the past 
five days," he writes in his diary. " God has been 
present, and a great blessing has come down upon 
the missionary brethren. It has been a time of 
great joy to me, and souls have been saved. Several 
of my students in the medical school have been 
impressed, and some have confessed Christ." 

In relation to this visit, in a letter to a friend in 
England the Doctor says : — 

" Let me tell you an incident of Stanley Smith's 
visit. One day they were going through the hospital, 
when I pointed out a case I could do nothing for. 
Devil possession, I believe, is the best term for it. 
The man had recently arrived, with some friends, 
from his home a long way off. Stanley Smith sug- 
gested prayer ; so we all prayed for him, and in 
God's love I believe he was restored to his right mind. 
Next morning he came in to our Bible-reading, and 
sat calmly through the meeting. His friends con- 
sidered he had been cured in answer to prayer, and 
they earnestly studied the Word for some days before 
returning home." 

At another time Dr. Mackenzie wrote : — 

" We hear much of faith healing in these days, and 
in my opinion the Medical Missionary should be a 
faith healer. He should give all the attention possible 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 



to his cases, use every means he can think of, every 
agency or drug that he knows of; but he should also 
do so in humble dependence upon God for His 
blessing. Just as the ordained preacher should never 
s^and up to deliver his message without looking to 
the Master for the spiritual influence, so the medical 
missionary should never perform an operation without 
seeking the help of Him who is mighty to save. 
Then, as the one missionary is a faith worker, the 
other is a faith healer. You have a broken limb 
brought into your hospital. What is your duty? 
Why, to use all your skill, your utmost knowledge, 
to set it, to bring the parts into as good contact as 
you possibly can ; then look to the Great Healer for 
a good recovery. Should you sit down with one 
bone in one direction and another at a different angle, 
and ask God to cure ? As well go about without 
shoes and stockings, and ask God" to protect you that 
your feet may not be injured. But you meet with 
cases where medical skill is unavailing— then pray." 

The condition of the medical school, while a source 
of encouragement to the Doctor, called forth occasion- 
ally the exercise of rare tact and wisdom. 

" The Viceroy left the young men entirely under 
my charge," he writes, " and at first I had a good 
deal of trouble ; on one occasion the fellows mutinied. 
The difficulty was this, they mistook kindness for 
weakness, and thought that as I spoke to them about 
their spiritual state they could act as they pleased ! 
I have had to learn how difficult it is to seek the 



266 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

salvation of those for whose discipline you are re- 
sponsible. Finally, however, in God's mercy and in 
answer to prayer, the matter is now definitely settled. 
The students have a prayer-meeting every morning 
amongst themselves, and although it is quite optional, 
about twelve out of eighteen attend it now. It is 
conducted in turn by four of the men themselves. 
On Sunday afternoon we have a Bible class, which 
all are required to attend. 

" A little while ago one of the Christians brought 
in the captain of a torpedo launch to see me, who had 
received his education in America. The student had 
been speaking and praying with him, and begged me 
to speak to the young officer about his soul. I found 
him trusting in Christ as his Saviour. He had 
recently passed through a lot of trouble, having met 
with a collision at sea, and was in Tien-tsin during 
the trial of the case. He had come under the influence 
of some of his friends in the medical school, and 
appeared to be soundly converted. 

" Only last Friday we had a special meeting 
amongst the students, because there seemed to be 
a good deal of the spirit of prayer present, and 
although it was perfectly optional, every student was 
present, besides two friends. We had a delightful 
time reading and talking about the eighth chapter 
of Romans, together with prayer and the singing of 
Sankey's hymns. The men know now that if they 
do wrong the necessary punishment will follow ; but, 
thank God, I have very, very seldom to interfere. 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 267 

" Might I ask your earnest prayers for the hospital 
and medical school? What rich blessings would 
come down if our friends at home made particular 
matters in the Mission field subjects of prayer, and 
so fulfilled the Word of our blessed Lord, Matt xviii. 
19. I am sure our Father would fulfil His portion. 
I have been thinking a good deal lately whether 
something might not be done in this matter. I have 
seen such blessed results follow in answer to direct 
and pointed believing prayer, that I should like to 
send home to friends the names of individual Chinese, 
if they would insert them in their praying lists. 
Suppose two friends took one or two names, making 
use of the promise above quoted. I would agree to 
keep track of the individual prayed for. If some 
dear brethren and sisters in England were thus 
engaged, they would be working distinctly for the 
Chinese,— the names given being those who have 
had, or are getting, Christian instruction. What do 
you think of this ? Anyhow, I will send you six 
names, and especially I ask prayer for myself. If 
this plan could only be arranged (and any number 
of names could be given if friends were only forth- 
coming), we might have Christians who could not 
leave England, yet in active work for the conversion 
of the Chinese. For we want more direct, intelligent 
prayer, not vague requests." 

During the summer of this year, 1885, Dr. 
Mackenzie was laid low with what it was at first 
feared would prove a most serious illness. He had 



268 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

for many years suffered from attacks of malarial 
fever, and at this time he was attacked by heat apo 
plexy, and lost, for some hours, the use of his right 
hand and the power of speech. Upon his recovery 
it was seen to be absolutely necessary that he should 
seek change of air, and his friends Mr. and Mrs. 
Hobson, of the Customs Service, who were at that 
time contemplating a visit to Taku, at the mouth 
of the Peiho, thoughtfully arranged to have an addi- 
tional native house-boat lashed to the side of their 
own for the Doctor's use, and in their genial com- 
panionship he spent several weeks, benefiting greatly 
by the rest and change. 

" A community of pilots reside here," writes the 
Doctor to his father, " who take steamers in and out 
over the bar. The place is very flat and muddy, and 
its only attraction is its neighbourhood to the sea 
and the fact of the air being consequently pure. I 
am much stronger for my stay of a week. I have 
been twice over the bar in a tug, and as this is a 
distance of seven miles, one gets a really good blow. 
Dear little Maggie will be a great comfort to you. 
Child-life is so helpful to us ; we little know how much 
joy we derive from companionship with children, not 
perhaps until we lose it. During my residence in 
Taku I have been living among children, and their 
sweet voices around one are full of the best music." 

At about this time one of the Doctor's students 
became seriously ill, and it was considered necessary 
that he should have a change of air. Accompanied 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 269 

by a companion, he went down to Taku with the 
Doctor in another house-boat. A letter written at 
this time by the young medical student who acted as 
nurse to his sick friend is an interesting proof of Dr. 
Mackenzie's influence over these educated young 
Chinamen. 

" One of my fellow-students had been suffering 
from malarial fever," he writes, " before Dr. Mackenzie's 
illness, and his temperature increased to 105 Fahr. 
He was then advised to take a trip down to Taku, 
and I went with and took care of him. 

" The Doctor had one house-boat, Mr. Hobson one, 
and we one. It took us a day and a half to go down 
to our destination. The Doctor and Mr. Hobson 
landed at Taku and lived at one of the captains', but 
we stayed on the boat, for my patient wished to get 
the sea-breezes. I might have had a jolly time then 
if I had not been so lonesome and yoked with care. 
It needs a great deal of patience to attend to a patient. 
But more than this, one evening after the sun had 
set, all of a sudden dark clouds spread over the sky, 
the north-easterly wind blew violently, and it rained 
copiously. We were all terribly frightened. Then I 
prayed to the Lord our Saviour, who alone hath 
power over the wind, and we sang the holy hymn, 
' Peace, be still.' Afterwards I had peace within 
from above, though there was trouble without. How 
God wrought in me I could not exactly tell, but it 
was so. We got through the tempest safe and sound, 
under the shelter of the protecting wings of our 



270 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

loving Father in heaven. About a fortnight ago we 
returned to the hospital, and my friend is now con- 
valescent ; but I have been attacked by the same type 
of fever. While I was lying ill the books you were 
so kind as to send down were read to me by some 
of my friends here, and I delighted very much to hear 
them. 

" I know that our faith is indeed small, but God 
increaseth it by our earnest and fervent prayers, and 
I have experienced that no matter where we may be, 
or whatever troubles or dangers may come to us, our 
kind Heavenly Father is willing and able to take care 
of us, if we only trust in Him." 

Another of the medical students, writing to the 
same friend a short time after, speaks of the illness 
of his fellow-students and the Doctor, and tells how 
when the invalids left Tien-tsin, they formed an even- 
ing prayer-meeting to pray for them and for their 
friends in China and other lands. 

" We know that our prayers are answered, and will 
be by no means in vain," writes the young student. 
" We hope that our faith in Christ will grow stronger 
day by day. We know that when our term of three 
years is expired we shall be put either into camp or 
men-of-war, where we are liable to be surrounded by 
temptation and evil ones. How can we expect our- 
selves to be able to stand this? we are so young 
It is a rather hard thing. However, we will cast 
ourselves in the hand of the Almighty, and pray to 
Him for help and strength. We must imitate St. 



SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 271 

Paul, who says, ' I can do all things through Christ, 
which strengtheneth me.'" 

After speaking of a journey Dr. Mackenzie under- 
took at this time, he continues : — 

"The Doctor is hoping that he may go into the 
interior oftener ; but, in fact, it is very hard for him 
to leave us. He does not feel comfortable without 
teaching us something every day. I can see the way 
in which he treats us. He is exceedingly kind to 
us, and I hope God will spare our lives to finish our 
course of study, and do something for the Chinese 
Government, and, finally, we may find some way or 
other to repay the Doctor's great kindness. I am 
very grateful for his teaching. I cannot express all 
my thoughts and thanks to him, for my knowledge 
is so limited." 

Dr. Mackenzie's Bible classes were always found to 
be most helpful by those who had the privilege ol 
attending them, the secret of his success doubtless 
lying in the fact that it was always his aim to make 
these meetings as conversational as possible, and to 
induce as many of the members to take part as he 
possibly could. 

" People enjoy a meeting much more when they 
have some part in it, however small," he once wrote. 
" Above all things, the leader should avoid preaching, 
if the meeting is to be interesting and profitable." 

Extracts from Dr. Mackenzie's note-book with 
regard to these classes show how fully his practice 
agreed with this theory, and how thorough an interest 



272 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



the Chinese members of his classes showed in the 
subjects of their lessons. 

" We were talking to-day upon the text, ' Blessed 
are ye that hunger now,"' he writes, "and I asked, 
' How is it that there are so few that hunger after 
spiritual things ? ' ' Why,' replied one of the Chinese 
Christians, ' it is for this reason, I think : when a man 
is sick he won't feel hungry at sight of the best dinner 
you can put before him : his disease must be cured 
before he can feel hungry. And so it is with spiritual 
things : this disease of sin must be grappled with 
before we can begin to feel hungry for heavenly 
things.' On another occasion we were reading of how 
Jesus, while preaching by the Lake of Gennesaret, 
being troubled by the crowds which pressed upon 
Him, sought refuge in a fishing-boat belonging to 
Simon Peter, and it is stated that at the time the 
fishermen were engaged in washing their nets. ' Ah ! ' 
remarked young Mao, one of our Christian dispensers, 
' we want to imitate Peter in this. He and his fellow- 
disciples had toiled all night and caught nothing, and 
here they were found in the morning washing their 
nets. We, who are fishers of men, need to attend 
to this ; we should be washing our nets oftcner. 
Are we not succeeding in our work as we should 
like ? Perhaps our communion with the Saviour 
is broken. Perhaps we are not constantly feeding 
upon God's Word. Then are our nets foul, and we 
had better give up fishing until we have washed 



SIGXS OF PROGRESS. 273 

The Doctor also gives many interesting incidents 
in connection with his medical students' Bible class, 
showing that many of the young men took a deep 
interest in spiritual things. It was not wonderful 
that an earnest desire after higher attainments in the 
Divine life should be tested, and an attempt made to 
hinder spiritual growth by the great enemy of souls. 
An account of some of the trials through which they 
had to pass is given by Dr. Mackenzie in a letter of 
this period. 

" One student, who had given a good deal of trouble, 
had to be punished for flagrant disobedience ; so he 
worked up some of the younger men, and got them 
to go to the yamen of the Taotai, the next official in 
rank here to the Viceroy, complaining of one of the 
assistant-teachers ; and, to back up their case, one of 
them took a Bible with him, and pulled it out before 
the official, declaring that I taught them more Chris- 
tianity than medicine. 

" Of course this was a falsehood, as no Christian 
teaching is allowed to interfere with their medical 
classes, excepting on Sundays, when medical class 
work is suspended, and I hold a Bible class instead. 
Well, the effect of this appeal was that the Taotai 
gave them a good rating, and though he was not 
a Christian, publicly told them that he knew what 
Christian work I was doing amongst them was for 
their good, and sent them back under an escort. 
The end of it has been that the ringleader was 
dismissed from the school, and the others would have 

18 



274 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

been punished, but I begged them off, as they were 
all repentant. 

" Our Bible class and Sabbath keeping, which was 
before carried out upon my sole responsibility, has 
now had official sanction, with the request only that 
those who did not wish to attend should not be 
compelled, but should instead carry on their medical 
studies as usual on the Sundays. One after another, 
however, begged to be allowed to attend again, and 
now all but one are coming voluntarily. One young 
fellow pleaded the case of the prodigal. ' When 
the younger son came back the father forgave him, 
even though he had been bad, did he not ? ' he en- 
quired. Another told me he ' was not very religious, 
but he did believe in Christianity.' Of course one 
was only too glad to receive the poor fellows back 
again." 



CHAPTER XIII. 
STRANGE PHASES OF CHINESE LIFE, 



Appe»f for a Colleague — Visit to Yen-Shan — Simple Faith of 
Country Converts — Steadfastness under Persecution — 
Inspection of Native Foundling Hospital — The Babies 
that never Cried — An Athletic Patient — A Coffined 
Patient — A Busy Life — The Lonely Rag-picker — A Secret 
Disciple — " They thought him Mad " — Curiosities of 
Chinese Medical Treatment — Scorpion Broth — Laying 
out before Death — An Unnatural Wife — A Health Trip 
under Difficulties — A Tauist Priest — The Medical 
Missionary Journal. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
STRANGE PHASES OF CHINESE LIFE. 

FROM his earliest days in China Dr. Mackenzie 
had always felt a deep interest in work among 
the people of the villages and country towns. He 
had a strong belief that the gospel would take a 
firmer hold on these simple folks, and that its greatest 
triumphs would be won there rather than in the 
thickly-populated centres of trade and commerce. 
It has already been noticed that he had frequently 
desired to pay visits to the country stations, but had 
found himself tied to his all-absorbing work in the 
hospital and medical school. He had hoped that the 
Viceroy would be willing to appoint another foreign 
medical man to assist him in his laborious work of 
training students for the Chinese Government ; but 
His Excellency did not care to entertain the idea, 
although he allowed two of the Doctor's former pupils 
to be retained as assistants by him. But now that 
the Hospital Reserve Fund was steadily growing and 
bringing in an increasing yearly income, Dr. Mackenzie 
began to cherish a hope that from that source it 
would be practicable to support an additional medical 

277 



278 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

missionary to the Tien-tsin station, who should not 
only be able to share with him the duties connected 
with the hospital and medical school, but whose 
presence would also enable them alternately to pay 
frequent visits to the country stations, and so increase 
and strengthen the work there. 

In the autumn of 1885 he wrote to the Directors, 
urging them to seek for and send out an additional 
medical missionary. 

" Is there no way of making our needs known 
to the Christian medical men of London, Edinburgh, 
and Cambridge ? " he enquires. " There was a revival 
among the students of Edinburgh and Cambridge 
resulting from the ' Stanley Smith movement' Many 
medical professors and senior students engaged in 
evangelistic tours as the result, and the missionary 
spirit spread extensively. Is there no way of reaching 
them ? Would not a paragraph in such a paper as 
The Christian be likely to catch the attention of such 
men ? I think so. 

" Last month I had to take a health change, so I 
went with Mr. Lees and Mr. Bryson on a visit to 
our stations at Yen-Shan and Ching-yiin. 

" I have always been a firm believer in country work, 
from what I have -seen of the country people who 
come into the hospital. I was delighted with our 
visit. We have no paid agent at present in this district, 
yet there are quite a large number of converts, who 
are holding on in their profession with such simple 
trust, that it is a pleasure t® meet with them and to 



STRANGE PHASES OF CHINESE LIFE, 2 7 g 

hear them pray. Yet the ignorance is vast ; take one 
village, for instance, in which there are perhaps 
twenty converts, and yet not one of them can read of 
write. They meet together to sing, knowing a few 
of Sankey's hymns by heart, and they p'ray and 
exhort each other. How great is their need of a 
teacher ! The possibilities of extension in this region 
I believe to be vast. The people outside the con- 
verts are kindly disposed, and appear willing to 
learn. I took a few medicines with me, but the 
demand was far beyond what I could supply, as 
crowds came flocking in from all regions. Now this 
hopeful district is visited twice a year by the foreign 
missionary, who spends two or three days there each 
time. Had we but another medical missionary in 
Tien-tsin I could get away twice a year, and thus 
four visits instead of two could be paid. It would 
be quite possible, too, to establish in time one or two 
branch dispensaries in this region, in charge of trained 
natives, who could be evangelist and doctor in one ; 
but it would be useless to attempt it unless properly 
supervised by the foreign missionary." 

In connection with this visit Dr. Mackenzie relates 
a story illustrating the perseverance, under persecu- 
tion, of a woman who became interested in the gospel, 
and who lived in this district. " Her mother-in-law 
strongly objected to her learning the doctrine, and 
tried to prevent her attendance at Mrs. Fan's instruc- 
tion class. Finally, the old woman told her if she 
went to the Bible-woman's house again she would 



2§o JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

lock her out. She was accustomed to go in the 
evening, after the day's work was done. Mrs. Fan, 
the Bible-woman, lived near by in another court, which 
communicated by a lane with the court in which 
the young woman lived. One evening, as usual, she 
attended the meeting, but on returning found the gate 
leading from the lane into her court locked. She 
could not get past, so she went back and borrowed a 
ladder, and by its aid climbed on to the roof of the 
neighbouring house, which was of course single- 
storied. She pulled up the ladder, dragged it over 
the roof of the house, and let it down on the other 
side, and so descended. She continued this manner 
of returning home night after night for a consider- 
able time, and finally her mother-in-law also became 
a believer in Jesus." 

In January 1886, in consequence of the large 
number of deaths constantly occurring in the Tien-tsin 
foundling hospital, the Taotai requested Dr. Mac- 
kenzie kindly to inspect the institution, and try and 
discover the cause of the great mortality among the 
infants. 

" The institution is supported by the salt guilds 
of the city," writes Dr. Mackenzie, " and they allow 
tls. 600 per month for its support. I found three 
hundred and ten children, all girls, in the building. 
One wet nurse is allowed to two children. They live 
in rooms opening on to a court, and sleep on the 
brick beds, where the women's food is cooked. In all 
the rooms there were only windows on one side, and 



STRANGE PHASES OF CHINESE LIFE. 2§l 

these were closely papered. In one apartment, about 
twenty-two feet by ten, with kangs on three sides, were 
eight women and sixteen children. The rooms were 
very dirty and very close, and cooking utensils and dirty 
rags were lying about freely. There was an enormous 
amount of eye disease ; probably every third child 
had bad eyes. Not a child cried, but all sat stupid, 
and dosed in the arms of the women, one on each 
arm. They were no doubt all drugged. The place 
was managed by head amahs, old women, who talked 
tremendously. ' Do they never cry ? ' I enquired of a 
head amah, who has two children to look after. ' Oh 
no, they are so well cared for ! ' she replied. 

" Officials robed in silks, satins, and furs, with em- 
broidered garments and precious stones, — nine persons 
in all, two of them Taotais, — inspect these dirty build- 
ings, and a mandarin's lady comes once a month for 
the same purpose. The Customs Taotai thinks in- 
stead of good harm is being done." 

In his hospital work the Doctor not unfrequently 
encountered curious phases of Chinese life. He men- 
tions the case of one patient who was a great athlete, 
said to be able to lift a man into the air with one 
hand. In order to conserve and increase his strength, 
according to Chinese theory, he had not slept lying 
down for twenty years. At first he could only sit up 
half the night, but at the present time finds it easier 
to sleep sitting up than lying down. He leans his 
head forward against his arms on the wall or window, 
and so sleeps." 



282 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

On another occasion the Doctor was called to see 
a man lying in his coffin, on a piece of waste land 
behind the hospital. It was supposed that he had 
died, and a coffin having been procured, according 
to common Chinese custom, the body was placed in 
it and put out upon the plain, instead of being in- 
terred, — the usual practice being to bury after a longer 
or shorter period, often many months elapsing be- 
tween the day of death and the day of entombment 

A man walking on the plain next morning fancied 
he heard a rustle inside the coffin ; standing still, he 
heard the noise repeated. In a short time a curious 
crowd had collected ; the lid was removed, and the 
man was found to be still alive. 

Water was given to him, and he drank it. Dr. 
Mackenzie was sent for, and when he saw the man 
he was breathing quietly, but still unconscious, and 
he ordered him brandy and milk. 

At this time he writes to his father : — 

" I am very fully occupied, for which indeed I am 
exceedingly thankful. I will tell you how I am 
spending my time. 

" My hour to rise in the morning is half-past six 
for winter, breakfast at a quarter to eight. At a 
quarter past eight I conduct a sort of Bible class in 
the hospital among the patients (those who are able 
to come), and the dispensers and servants. This lasts 
for three-quarters of an hour, and is, of course, in 
Chinese. From half-past nine till eleven o'clock I 
study Chinese ; at eleven o'clock dispensary work 



STRANGE PHASES OF CHINESE LIFE. 283 

begins, and here and in the hospital I spend two 
hours, until one o'clock. At one o'clock I take 
dinner ; at two prepare my medical class work ; at 
three I take the senior class in the medical school in 
medicine or surgery ; at four or half-past four I am 
free, and I try to get away for a walk, but there is 
constantly something coming up to be attended to — 
perhaps an operation, or a Chinese letter to answer, 
or some case of discipline in the medical school to be 
dealt with. 

" On Tuesday evenings at seven p.m. we have a 
Chinese prayer-meeting, with a review of the week's 
work in the Bible ; this I conduct. On Monday even- 
ing we have a Mission prayer-meeting, when we all 
meet for consultation and prayer. On Wednesday 
evening there is the Union Church prayer-meeting, 
which is practically a united missionary prayer- 
meeting, and which I always attend. 

" Sunday is also a very busy day. Sunday-school 
class at half-past nine ; Chinese service at half-past 
ten ; medical school Bible class at three p.m. ; evening 
service at six p.m. ; meeting for ' Blue-jackets/ from 
English and American navy, after the evening service 
in the church. 

" There, I did not know what to write about, so I 
thought it might interest you to hear how I get along 
from day to day. I feel what a privilege it is to be 
doing God's work among the Chinese. There is a 
good deal of seed sowing, of course, but it is work that 
has to be done by some one, and we are continually 



2§ 4 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

cheered by seeing the good seed springing up and 
bringing forth fruit. Our loving Saviour is indeed a 
good Master to serve." 

The Sunday afternoon Bible class for medical 
students, to which reference has been made, was not 
confined to these young men alone, but other foreign 
friends outside the Mission circle were in the habit of 
attending it, and felt it a great stimulus to their 
spiritual life. He had also a class in the Chinese 
Sunday-school, which met, at that time, at half-past 
nine, before the morning service. He took great 
interest in his Chinese scholars, all of whom were 
grown-up men, and not children, as is usually the 
case at home. 

In his diary he mentions one man who became a 
Sunday scholar, and afterwards a patient. He seems 
to have been brought to the class by one who had 
long been a member of it, and was a true believer, 
though his knowledge was very small. We would 
fain hope his case is a typical one, and that there 
may be many other Chinese disciples, poor, unknown, 
and with little courage, and yet known of God, as the 
day shall reveal. 

Chang-yii-ch'wen, the keeper of one of the public 
buildings of Tien-tsin, had been for many years a 
Christian, and was a member of the Doctor's Sunday- 
school class. He observed for some days in succession 
a man engaged in picking up stray bits of rag and 
paper in the neighbourhood of the hall, and entered 
into conversation with him. He found the rag-picker 



STRANGE PHASES OF CHINESE LIFE. 285 

at first somewhat reserved in his manners, and in 
answer to the common Chinese question, " How much 
money do you make daily by this work ? " he replied 
indefinitely, " Oh, enough to live upon." But Chang 
felt his interest in the man aroused, and continuing 
the conversation, by-and-bye discovered that the 
stranger, who also bore the common Chinese name of 
Chang, was about forty years of age, and had land in 
the country belonging to him. " Why are you away 
from home then ? " was the natural enquiry. Oh, he 
had left home because his family persecuted him so, 
and would give him no rest. " Why, how is that ? " 
" I was going to the meetings of a religious sect, and 
they tried to stop me ; then, because I would not stop 
going, they were constantly swearing at and torment- 
ing me in every way. At last they would give me no 
food to eat. I am not a member of the Church of 
which I speak ; I am only a believer in its doctrines. 
Finally, I felt I could bear it no longer, so I decided 
to leave home just as I was, without any money, so 
that I could escape from their persecution." " Can 
you read ? " asked Chang. " No, not a character." 
" Have you learnt the catechism ? " " No, but I know 
that I am a sinner, and I have heard that the Lord 
can save me, and I believe." " Why ! " exclaimed Yii- 
Ch'wen, " I am a believer too ; I am a Christian. You 
should come with me to our church on Sundays." 
And so the stranger was brought to the Sunday- 
school class, and became an attentive listener to the 
Doctor's earnest words. 



286 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



In future conversations it was discovered that the 
man had a friend in Tien-tsin, a neighbour from his 
own country-side, and this friend had offered him a 
situation, with his food and a yearly wage. But the 
wanderer would not take it ; he said he " had some 
occupation," but his real reason for refusing the offer 
was that he feared he would not be able to attend 
church if he accepted it, and he was afraid to confess 
that he was a Christian. Some time after this friend 
found the man out again, and repeated his offer of the 
post. This time he ventured to say that he would take 
the situation if he might have four days a month to 
attend to a private matter ; but this was immediately 
refused, and the friend departed. 

He makes, by picking up paper, sufficient to keep 
himself in food and lodging, and seems quite satisfied. 
Pointing to the rich and well-dressed people passing 
in large numbers along the Taku Road, Yii Ch'wen 
asked him one day if he was not surprised that he 
should be left so poor, while others had all they needed. 
" Ah," replied the man, " this life is not for ever." 

Later on he fell sick, and was brought to the 
hospital, suffering from dysentery. He stayed for a 
few days, but as there was no marked improvement 
in his symptoms, he asked permission to leave, 
wishing to be treated after Chinese methods. Some 
days later his death was reported in a poor Chinese 
inn. He was not a man of strong courage, but he 
had readily given up his all for freedom to worship 
the Lord in whom he believed. 



STRANGE PHASES OF CHINESE LIFE. 287 

In May 1886 the Doctor mentions, in his diary, 
the case of a man who had been that morning baptized. 
He came into the hospital nearly blind, and great 
improvement followed upon operation. He returned 
home trusting in the Lord Jesus, but not baptized. 
His first act upon arriving at his village was to take 
down the idols in his home, and throw them into a 
neighbouring pond. His conduct was so strange that 
the people thought he was mad, and called him so. 
After many months he came back to Tien-tsin to 
receive baptism. Two months after being received 
into the Church, he returned again from his village, 
apparently as earnest as ever. It seems that he is often 
overcome in arguments with his neighbours, because 
his knowledge is so slight. 

As an illustration of the curious modes of treatment 
in vogue among Chinese doctors, I select a few cases 
mentioned in Dr. Mackenzie's note-book, the results 
of his own experience. 

" I was called in to see a child, six months of age, 
at one of the yamens. It was suffering from bron- 
chitis. A large toad, with its belly in contact with 
the child's body, had been employed, the claws being 
covered with cotton wool, the object being to draw 
away the heat. Scorpions had also been cooked and 
made into a poultice, which was applied to the fontanel 
of the infant. The stings were made into a broth, and 
the child fed with it." 

Another patient he mentions as having been treated 
for typhoid fever at home. The doctor applied burn- 



288 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

ing incense to a piece of leaf laid on the skin. The 
leaf was set on fire, and burnt the skin. Many years 
after, over a hundred scars were visible on his body 
as the result of this treatment. 

Still another case was that of a man suffering from 
severe dyspepsia, and very much reduced. He said 
he had experienced slight discomfort, but was quite 
strong a month ago, when he consulted a priest- 
doctor, who stuck six needles into his gastric region, 
after which treatment he had to keep his bed for a 
month, and could eat nothing but slops. 

" I was called to attend a woman in one of the 
yamens, who was suffering from spasmodic asthma, 
and found a slave-girl beating the back of the chest 
with a large stick like a rolling-pin, with the idea of 
giving relief." 

The Doctor's diary contains many instances of 
Chinese customs which seem strange and often cruel 
to us. Among others, he notes the practice of laying 
out a person who is dying before the decease takes 
place. 

" A Chinese friend of mine had an uncle, aged 
sixty-four, who has been ill for some time past, and 
the other day they sent him word the old man was 
dying and had been laid out. In China, when all 
hope is given up of a patient's recovery, the custom 
is to dress them at once in grave clothes, and remove 
them to a board and tressels away from the ordinary 
bed, so that it shall not be defiled. As it is often 
uncertain when a man is going to breathe his last, 



STRANGE PHASES OF CHINESE LIFE. 289 

it not unfrequently happens that his last hours are 
spent in torture, and his end hastened by this treat- 
ment. In the cold winter of Tien-tsin, to be stripped 
of warm garments and bedding and laid out in cold, 
stiff clothing must indeed be trying. 

" My friend arrived at his uncle's house, expecting 
to find him dead, but instead of -this he was only 
laid out in burial clothes ; he was surrounded by a 
crowd of relatives, dressed in white mourning gar- 
ments, waiting for him to breathe his last, while strips 
of white paper, the sign of death in a house, had 
already been pasted on the outer doors. ' Do you 
know me ? ' my friend asked of his dying uncle. 
' Oh yes ; why did you not come before ? ' replied the 
patient ; ' I am so thirsty, and they will give me 
nothing to drink, and I am so cold, since all my 
warm clothing has been taken away, and my bones 
are sore with lying on this hard board. Move me 
back to the kang, and take these clothes away ; I 
am not dead yet ! ' The nephew gave him a bowl 
of hot water, which he drank, and afterwards some 
tea. He felt his pulse, and discovered that it was 
stronger than when he had visited him before. 

" ' Don't wait for me, father ! ' said a married 
daughter who had just arrived ; ' I am here, so you can 
go ! ' This remark was made in allusion to the idea 
that the souls of the dying cannot pass away if they 
are desiring to see some absent member of the family. 

" The Christian nephew insisted upon his uncle 
being moved back to his bed and dressed again in 

19 



290 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

warm clothing, and gave him some arrowroot ; after 
which the old man seemed better, and lived for about 
a fortnight." 

At about the same time the Doctor writes : — 

" Here is an instance of the domestic misery so 
often found in this heathen land. A man had been 
attending our dispensary for several weeks, suffering 
from a very painful and incurable malady, for which, 
however, we could give him much relief. One day 
his wife appeared with him, and wished to know 
whether he could be permanently cured. Finding 
that this was impossible, she began to upbraid her 
poor husband for his inability to work, and, finally, 
turning to me in the presence of the sick man, asked 
if I would not give him a dose of poison to kill him 
quickly, as they had to depend for their support upon 
the labour of one son." 

In July of this year Dr. Mackenzie writes to his 
brother : — 

" I have been away for a boat trip of ten days' 
duration, to try and shake off my malaria this 
summer, and so prevent breaking down as I did last 
year. We are very badly situated in Tien-tsin for 
getting a change, having no hills near and no seaside 
resort nearer than Chefoo. 

" Determined to get some sort of a change, I went 
with Mr. King on this boat trip to one of our country 
stations. The journey, however, was rather a mistake, 
as in a small boat, with a little cabin, it was unbear- 
ably hot 



STRANGE PHASES OF CHINESE LIFE. 291 

" After the sun had been on the boat for some 
hours, we were in a state of agony, endeavouring in 
every way to cool ourselves, sitting with wet towels 
round our heads and chests. It was a dreadful time ; 
yet upon our return I feel the better for even such a 
trying change ; the air, free from the neighbourhood 
of a great city, was at least pure, and I feel freer from 
the depressing languor of the malarial atmosphere of 
this place." 

" A Tauist priest came to the hospital to-day," he 
writes, "with his right ear badly deformed. Two 
and a half years ago, when his temple needed 
repairing, he himself nailed both his ears to a door, 
and remained thus for two days and two nights. 
His object was to excite compassion and stimulate 
liberality. In freeing himself one ear, the right, got 
badly torn, and has since remained hanging as an 
awkward fragment. The left ear, though torn through, 
had healed in good position." 

In the autumn of 1886 it was decided to try and 
form all the medical missionaries in China, both men 
and women, into a society, to be known as the 
" Medical Missionary Association of China." It was 
also arranged that a journal should be started by this 
society, to be called the Medical Missionary Journal. 
It is an interesting proof of the estimation in which 
Dr. Mackenzie was held by his colleagues in medical 
work, that he was chosen by them to edit the part of 
this magazine which was to be devoted to the con- 
sideration of the best methods of using medical 



292 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

missionary work as a means of doing the Master's 
work and saving souls. 

Dr. Mackenzie's time had always been so fully 
occupied that it had seemed almost impossible for 
him to use his pen in describing the wonderful work 
he was privileged to carry on, or to express in writing 
his ideas of a medical missionary's calling. This 
work being almost entirely supported by the liberality 
of the Viceroy, there was not the same need of 
writing a report for the encouragement and interest 
of foreign contributions as exists in many other cases. 
But when this journal was started, he seemed to look 
upon this appointment as a call coming, first of all, 
from the Master ; and during the last fifteen months 
of his life, the period of the magazine's existence, he 
contributed to it repeatedly. 

" The Evangelistic Side of a Medical Mission," and 
" Some Spiritual Results of Medical Mission Work," 
were the titles of two of these papers, and an editorial 
called " The Double Cure," which appeared within 
a few weeks of his death, and was his last contribution 
to the pages of the periodical, speaks with no uncertain 
sound of the aim which Kenneth Mackenzie kept 
ever in view in the prosecution of his medical work. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
GLIMPSES OF INNER LIES. 



Visit to Peking — Most Blessed Meetings — His Favourite 
Books — Rather Die than Deny Christ — Letters to a 
Young Missionary — " In Nothing be Anxious " — Spiritual 
Growth in Chinese Converts — Comparisons between Life 
in Nazareth and in China — Railways Contemplated — 
Kidnapping — Disturbance in the City — " Not Hard Work 
but Worry that Kills" — Need of Spiritual Power — A 
Helpful Meeting. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 

IT has been before mentioned that Dr. Mackenzie 
constantly acknowledged his indebtedness for 
assistance in hospital work to the medical men of 
the Tien-tsin community, Drs. Frazer and Irwin, and 
also to the surgeons of the various gunboats which, 
during the winter, are usually stationed in Tien-tsin, 
besides those medical missionaries coming down from 
the interior, and residing in the port for a time. 

" I have had a very pleasant associate this summer," 
writes the Doctor, " in Dr. Merritt from Pao-ting-fu, 
who has been spending the summer here, with his 
family ; he has given me great help every day in my 
work. It is very enjoyable to have companions who 
are interested in just the same line of things as one- 
self. I have been very busy this summer, but greatly 
enjoy the work. I get now an increasingly large 
amount of surgical work, and generally have two or 
three important operations every week-day. Eye 
operations are of almost daily occurrence, and it is 
a real pleasure to restore sight to those who come to 
us, to all intents and purposes, blind. I feel I should 
like to be relieved of the teaching work in my hands. 

295 



296 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

I am afraid I did not count the cost when I started 
with it. It is a tremendous tax upon one, the constant 
preparation for class work in the midst of so many 
practical hospital duties, and is especially felt during 
the hot months of summer. Not that I do not enjoy 
it too, and shall ever feel grateful for the privilege of, 
in some measure, influencing the lives of a few of the 
first representatives of Western medicine, as practised 
by the Chinese themselves. Still it is a strain I 
would not like to bear alone much longer. I have 
very efficient Chinese helpers from my old classes, 
but they can never quite take the place of foreign 
associates. But this is too much about self and his 
doings." 

Towards the end of December Dr. Mackenzie 
writes to his brother from Peking : — 

" You will see that I have left home. I came 
away two days before Christmas, with Mr. Gilmour, 
who had visited Tien-tsin from Mongolia to get some 
drugs from me. I thought a little change into 
another region would do me good, and I was able 
to get Dr. Leach, of the American gunboat Palos, 
to take on my work during my absence ; so I came 
away with Gilmour. He is a delightful companion, 
and though the journey to Peking, at this time of 
the year, is rather trying, I greatly enjoyed it. We 
travelled by cart, as the river is frozen, starting about 
9 a.m., and reaching our inn about 7 p.m. Then we 
had a meal, and slept on the brick bed until 3 a.m., 
when we had to get up and continue our journey 



GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 297 

during the night This part of it was very cold at this 
season. We again travelled most of the Friday night, 
and were thus able to get in at 8 a.m. on Christmas 
morning. Every one was very kind, and welcomed us 
heartily. 

" I have been spending these days in social visits 
amongst my friends in Peking, who are so very kind. 
Yesterday I was lunching with Dr. Atterbury, and 
was glad to see something of him and his work. 
You will perhaps remember that it was he who came 
down to Tien-tsin to take up my work during my 
absence in England. I shall ever remember this act 
of kindness. He has just completed a fine new 
hospital for Medical Mission work, built at his own 
cost. 

" Depend upon it, there are not a few unselfish 
people in the world, who live, not for themselves, but 
for others. In these cases wealth is a rich blessing. 

" I am very glad to know more of Gilmour. Living 
away in Mongolia, he sees no foreign face, and 
no fellow-countryman is there to sympathize with 
him. He has no house of his own, and, living in the 
miserable inns of the place, knows nothing of privacy, 
for the Chinese and Mongols, according to custom, 
crowd around him at all hours. He takes simple 
medicines that I make up for him, and opens a booth 
on the street, where he gives away his medicines and 
preaches fche gospel to those who come around him. 
It is a hard life, but God has given him much grace 
and strength to bear it." 



293 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

A fortnight after he writes : — 

" I stayed in Peking over the week of prayer, and 
the meetings every day were delightful. I got to 
know all the missionaries in Peking. Previously I 
have been kept so closely to my work in Tien-tsin 
that I only knew many of them by name, or in a 
casual way ; now I can say I know most of them as a 
friend knows his friend. 

" I was received in Peking by all the friends with 
such unbounded kindness, that I cannot but praise 
the Lord for all His goodness to me. We had most 
blessed meetings, and the spirit of prayer was poured 
forth in such rich abundance, that it is evident God is 
about to do a great work in North China this year. I 
hope Maggie is keeping well. I wish I could see the 
dear child now and again, and visit you all ; yet I am 
far from being unhappy, God has given me rich joy in 
my life-work. I know that I am doing work for God 
here in Tien-tsin. The hospital is one of the most 
important centres of usefulness in the whole of China. 
It amazes me sometimes as I look back, to see how 
wonderfully out of a small beginning God has de- 
veloped a large and efficient institution. We seek ever 
to bring home the precious gospel of the love of God 
to our patients in hospital, so that from this centre 
the Truth is carried away for hundreds of miles." 

Writing to a medical friend in China, soon after his 
return from Peking, Dr. Mackenzie says : — 

" I am more and more impressed with the fact that 
it is useless for us to pray for an outpouring of the 



GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 299 

Holy Spirit upon the people amongst whom we live 
and labour, unless we are earnestly seeking His 
presence ourselves. I am sure of this, that God 
works through His people. Glory be to His holy 
Name that it is so ! If the people are to get the 
Holy Spirit, we must first seek it for ourselves, and 
then, when we are filled, the Spirit will, like a great 
stream that has overflown its banks, pour forth to 
others ; or else (God grant that it may not be so in 
our experience) He will pass us by, and use some 
other of His servants. But the appointed channel 
of His blessing is through His spiritual Church in 
its various members. We are to be co-workers with 
God, and yet after all the whole work is His ; we 
need but to be willing and empty. But oh, how 
much is implied in this. ' Hungering and thirsting 
after righteousness,' ' Travailing in soul ' — these are 
some of the expressions in the Word to denote the 
state of heart of him whom God can richly bless 
and use. This is no Sunday religion, dear brother, 
but a life full of the healthiest activities and most 
ennobling joys." 

Dr. Mackenzie's time was so fully occupied that he 
had little leisure for reading, and, with the exception 
of professional literature, during the latter years of 
his life read only books and papers which he con- 
sidered helpful to personal piety, such as Andrew 
Murray's "Abide in Christ," "Like Christ," and 
others of the same series ; " The Life of Finney," 
'The Christian and the Reaper." 



300 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Some time before this date he had written to his 
father :— 

" I am glad you have enjoyed ' Abide in Christ ; ' it 
is a book full of rich teaching. I think I have hardly 
ever received more benefit from any book. It requires 
much careful thought. I get very little time for 
general reading, but such a book as this can be taken 
up at odd intervals, and fill the mind with food for 
meditation." 

To a Christian friend, connected with the Chinese 
customs service, who was at home on furlough, he 
wrote, under date of March 1887, thanking him for 
a book he had received, and continued : — 

" I am looking forward to having a great treat in 
reading it. At present I am still feasting on i Like 
Christ,' and also another little book entitled ' Thoughts 
on Christian Sanctity,' by Rev. H. C. G. Moule. This 
latter book I am sure you would like, if you have not 
already read it. You see, I haven't much time for 
general reading, and these books, to be of any benefit, 
must be assimilated, and this is a slow process. 
Gilmour came in from Mongolia at the New Year, 
and I let him take with him ' Abide in Christ.' .... 
I have already got rid of half-a-dozen copies. 

" Oh, dear brother, it is a precious thing to serve 
the Lord. I have never known such joy in life as 
God has mercifully granted me these last few months. 
Jesus literally fills and satisfies one's life. It is such 
a pleasure to see the students growing in knowledge 
of God. The dear Saviour will indeed reveal Him- 



GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 301 

self in His glory to us (Chinaman or foreigner) if 
we will but get near enough to see Him. 

" You will remember and ; they are at 

home on furlough after their three years' course. The 
former has met with a lot of persecution from his 
relatives because he has become a Christian, but the 
Lord is sustaining him, and causing him to bear witness 
for Jesus. He writes from his home that he would 

1 rather die than deny Christ' Then is preaching 

and holding Bible classes in his holidays, and has 
already led some to the Cross. 

"In the hospital there is a good work going 
on ; the Lord Jesus seems to be working all the time 
amongst our in-patients. We are having enquirers 
always ; that is, no sooner is one batch gone than 
another has taken its place. Last year there was 
an average of forty in-patients all the time in the 
wards ; out of this number we always have some 
who are seeking the Lord, and give evidence of 
having the Holy Spirit in their hearts. This is a 
great joy to us." 

After relating the case of a man who had come 
into he hospital a heathen, in total ignorance of 
the gospel, and had died full of joy in hope of 
salvation through our Lord and Saviour, he con- 
tinues : — 

" Yes, indeed, St. Paul knew what he was about 
when he wrote, 'The gospel of Christ is the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.' 

"This winter has been an unusually worldly one 



302 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

in Tien-tsin. They have had the municipal band 
playing at the skating rink on Sundays regularly, 
besides Sunday hunting. 

" This is largely due to the influence of a growing 
French and German element. What a sad spectacle 
it is, while the Chinese are entering the Kingdom, to 
see men and women from Christian lands trampling 
under foot the precious gospel, and ashamed of it. 
Yet so it was with the Jews, God's chosen people. 
Oh to walk before Him with fear and trembling, that 
we slip not ! " 

To another friend, a young missionary in China, 
with whom he frequently corresponded, he writes : — 

" The first year in China is always a trying time, 
because it is a time of preparation, and we yearn to 
be doing. When you have got some hold of the 
language, and can engage in work for the Master, you 
will have your hands and your heart full. And yet, 
even now, you are actively working for the Lord. To 
do the work that lies at our hands, this is fulfilling 
God's will. If I were you I would not touch medicine 
for at least a year, but give your whole strength to 
the language and to looking after your own health. 
Medical missionaries are usually forced into medical 
work from the beginning, and then have to lament 
it ever after. Get a good foundation laid in the 
language, and take plenty of exercise in the open air. 

" You mention that in leaving England you fear 
you will lose much religious teaching. I do trust it 
will not be so. I am learning that public religious 



GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 303 

services are after all but imperfect methods of giving 
religious instruction — I mean heart instruction. The 
greatest help I find in the Christian life is in the 
prayerful study of the Bible. John vi. 57 is a 
striking verse, l As I live by the Father, so he that 
eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.' Our Lord, it 
seems to me, would have us learn that exactly the 
same sort of relationship which existed between the 
Man Christ Jesus, and the Father in heaven, is open 
to us. He was ever depending upon the help of the 
Father, was ever seeking to obey the Father, and was 
in the closest communion with the Father. We can 
only live as fruitful branches when we are in vital 
contact with the Vine. We can only become and 
remain in vital contact by eating of Him, partaking 
of His life ; and this spiritual food can only be 
obtained direct from Jesus. I fall into temptation 
when I get up late in the morning, and lose my 
communion with God over His Word. Nothing, no 
united service, or even family prayers, can take the 
place of this. Studying God's Word upon one's 
knees I have found the most helpful of all methods. 
How willing the Lord is to come and dwell in us if 
we only want Him ! And then if He is dwelling in 
us, the world wears a different aspect, and we are 
very rarely long in doubt as to our course of action 
in any matter." 

To the same friend, at a later date, after a family 
bereavement, he writes : — 

" It is a terrible calamity to lose a loved parent ; 



304 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

yet the loss is ours only, and we should not sorrow 
as those who have no hope. Dying is but ' going 
home ' to the believer ; for has not our blessed 
Lord abolished death, and brought life and immor- 
tality to light through the gospel ? Let us just dwell 
upon the verse, for there is no more death to those 
who are in Christ Jesus. It is but the coming to the 
end of our earthly journey, and entering into the 
Promised Land. The verse rings of victory. What 
a joy that you have found Christ so precious to you 
of late ! He will bear the pain for you, and in 
bringing it to Him you will learn to know Him better, 
for is it not in sorrow and trouble that our dearest 
friendships are made, that we come nearer to our 
friends? He is our Friend. 

" Let me give you a verse that has been full of com- 
fort to me (Phil. iv. 6) ' In nothing be anxious ; but in 
everything by prayer and supplication with thanks- 
giving, let your requests be made known unto God.' 
Verse 7, ' And the peace of God, which passeth all 
understanding, shall guard your hearts and your 
thoughts in Christ Jesus.' Verse 7 contains one of the 
most precious promises in the Bible. Just think of 
having His wonderful peace guarding one's heart and 
one's thoughts all day long. But it is only on condition 
that we fulfil the sixth verse. ' In nothing be anxious,' 
— this is a distinct command, and if we fail to fulfil it 
we shall not get the blessing. Sorrow even is anxiety, 
and should be laid upon our blessed Lord. Then in 
prayer and supplication we must not forget that 



GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 305 

thanksgiving is also distinctly commanded ; we must 
praise God for His dealings with us, even though we 
cannot make them out at times. Let us see to it that 
the blessing we have gained is not temporary only, but 
that this wonderful peace may be with us always. 

" God is teaching you in all these matters, and 
though our lessons are often hard to take to heart, 
yet we do get a delightfully close realization of His 
presence, in a way that we could not otherwise do. 
Pray God to make you cease from anxiety about 
yourself and your plans ; just be willing to do the 
work our dear Father gives you at the time. I know 
from my own experience rest is found for the weary 
and the heavy laden, and a fulness of joy such as 
we can obtain in no other way. But I trust you are 
drinking from the Fountain Head already. My 
position has come to this, Am I living near my 
Saviour : then I am as happy as the day is long, and 
as light-hearted as a child. It may be that I have 
plenty of annoyances, but they don't trouble me when 
His presence is with me. Am I downcast and 
worried : then I am away from God. I have grieved 
the Holy Spirit by my sin. While this is my con- 
dition I am, thank God, in perfect health. When the 
body is sick the heart is no doubt often sad, and 
prone to be low-spirited by the very influence of the 
body over the mind. Yet to faith we know many of 
God's people have owed great peace in the midst of 
pain and severe illness." 

At a later date he writes to the same friend : — 

20 



306 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

" I do trust you continue to find joy and rest in 
God. I am afraid my last letter to you was not a 
helpful one. Lesson : Never write to your friends 
when you are worried and anxious. In the first 
place, worry is absolutely wrong in a believer. Do 
you know this in the Psalms (cxix. 165)? — 'Great 
peace have they which love Thy law/ and in Psalm 
lxviii. 19, new version, ' Blessed be the Lord, who 
daily beareth our burden.' Is not the latter a great 
improvement on the old version ? — ' Daily loadeth us 
with benefits.' This was very precious, but not nearly 
so delightful as the new. I hope you are keeping 
quite well and strong in every respect this summer. 
Don't be unwise enough to think that we are serving 
God best by constant activity at the cost of head- 
aches and broken rest. I am getting to be of the 
opinion that we may be doing too much. We want — 
at least this is my own want — a higher quality of 
work. * He that is entered into his rest, he also hath 
ceased from his own works, as God did from His' 
(Heb. iv. 10). ' Let us labour therefore to enter into 
that rest' (ver. 1 1). Our labour should be to maintain 
unbroken communion with our blessed Lord ; then we 
shall have entire rest, and God abiding in us ; that 
which we do will not be ours, but His. 

" I have not time for much reading now ; in fact, I 
am getting confined to a very small circle of litera- 
ture, of which the principal book is ' The Book.' " 

Speaking of the Spirit's work among the medical 
students and in the hospital wards, he writes ; — 



GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 307 

■ It is very delightful to see growth around you 
especially spiritual growth. It is worth suffering 
much (though I have no cause to talk of suffering, 
my joy has been so full), and coming a long way, to 
see Chinamen drinking in the living water." 

Writing to the same friend, he notes down some 
comparisons between life in Nazareth and in China. 

" Have you ever tried to picture what sort of a life 
our Lord led in Nazareth ? Thompson, in his l Land 
and the Book,' gives us some idea of what it must 
have been. The carpenters' tools of the present day 
in Judea are very similar to those used by the 
Chinese carpenter. The house, probably built of 
stone, must have been very bare and cheerless, 
especially among the poor with whom our Lord lived. 
Poverty and dirt generally go together, particularly 
in an Eastern climate. I wonder if the peasant of 
Nazareth was much cleaner or more comfortable 
than the Chinese peasant of the present day? They 
evidently had few belongings, for they could change 
their quarters without much hindrance from impedi- 
menta. The villagers were unlettered and ignorant 
men ; they must have been chiefly occupied, as are 
the poor amongst the Chinese, in striving after the 
necessaries of life, in discussing ways and means. 
Christianity has, for thousands in our native land, 
converted earth into a paradise, compared with such 
a scene as this. To us the life of a Chinese peasant 
would be a perpetual martyrdom. 

" * Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery to be 



308 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

equal with God : but made Himself of no reputation, 
and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was 
made in the likeness of men.' From trying to 
picture, however imperfectly, something of our Lord's 
surroundings when on earth, I get new light upon 
the verse just quoted. What a constant martyrdom 
our Lord was ever going through while upon earth. 
Yet these external things were as nothing compared 
with the moral obliquity and spiritual deadness Jesus 
was always meeting with. How His pure heart must 
have been pained every day. • Yet He was sustained 
by the constant peace of communion with the Father. 
Thank God we have the like blessed privilege open 
to us. * Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to 
you ; resist the devil, and he will flee from you.' " 
On March 25th, 1887, he writes to his father : — 
" Tien-tsin is very busy this year ; trade must be 
improving, judging by the large number of new 
arrivals in this settlement. It seems certain, too, that 
railways are to be introduced, at least in a small way- 
This the first step is the most important one, for if 
once started and accepted, their extension is only a 
matter of time. Marquis Tseng has the credit of 
finally convincing the Empress. He is stated to have 
said to Her Majesty, ' I have lived for ten years in 
Western lands, and have seen with my own eyes, and 
can bear personal testimony, that railways can only 
benefit our country and people, and cannot be harm- 
ful.' A small line is therefore sanctioned to connect 
some coal mines with Taku and Tien-tsin." 



GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 309 



But while signs of progress were apparent, looking 
in the direction of a more complete opening up of the 
country, at the same time there were still signs, even 
in Tien-tsin, of that distrust and suspicion of foreigners 
which is constantly cropping up, and at this time it 
was to some extent directed against one who was 
generally acknowledged to be a public benefactor, 
?>., Dr. Mackenzie himself. 

" There are a lot of unfortunate stories about kid- 
napping filling the air in Tien-tsin," he writes to a 
friend in China. " Some six or eight people have 
been seized and thrown into the yamen for stealing 
children, and it is said that they call themselves 
Roman Catholics, and profess to be in foreign employ. 
A scandalous paper was pasted in front of the book- 
shop vilifying the name of Jesus. 

" Our English Consul called upon me to ask me to 
let him know what I should hear from the Chinese 
about the excitement. The French gunboat, after 
receiving orders to leave, has been stopped by order 
of the French Minister. I suppose the excitement 
will subside in a short while, but it is strange how 
these foolish reports are taken up and evidently 
believed. 

" Mr. called in the other day to warn me that 

two different Chinese had told him that I was mixed 
up in the affair. The French Consul was supposed 
to have instigated the kidnapping, and I had supplied 
the medicines with which the children are supposed 
to be stupefied ! " 



310 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 



The matter is thus referred to in the Chinese 
Times of that date : " For some time past the Chinese 
in. and about Tien-tsin hav^ been filled with con- 
sternation on account of the frequent occurrence of 
the kidnapping of children. Children disappeared, 
and the offenders could not be discovered." 

It goes on to relate how five men were arrested, 
and after examination acknowledged their guilt, one 
of them declaring he had been bribed by the French 
missionaries to commit the crime. 

" This statement, though suppressed by the magis- 
trate, soon spread like wildfire through the city, and 
the story was embellished as it spread from mouth to 
mouth. The most absurd fables were invented : the 
children's bodies were used in the composition of 
foreign medicines ; their eyes were made into photo- 
graphic chemicals ; they were sold to the steamers, etc., 
etc. On Friday evening last a popular rising against 
the foreign community of Tien-tsin seemed imminent. 
The Viceroy Li, who is absent in Peking, was 
communicated with, and immediately sent down most 
stringent orders to the Tien-tsin authorities to deal 
summarily with any persons attempting to make a 
disturbance, and to take prompt measures to restore 
tranquillity. The state of affairs during Friday, 
Saturday, and Sunday was critical, but the precau- 
tions taken by the authorities have now removed all 
danger of an outbreak. A body of Chinese troops 
was guarding the settlement on Saturday and Sunday 
nights." 



GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 311 

In a letter to his brother, written at this time, 
Dr. Mackenzie says : — 

"It is a great blessing when one can cast care to 
the winds, and acquire perfect freedom from anxiety. 
This is evidently much easier for some than others ; 
one thing I feel sure of, it is not hard work that kills, 
but worry. I think I am very little troubled in this 
way now, thank God ; for instance, I have fifty-four 
in-patients under my charge just now, nearly all 
surgical cases and of the greatest anxiety, and yet I 
am not in the least worried, though my time is very 
fully occupied." 

Later on he writes to his father : — 

" We badly need another medical missionary for 
Tien-tsin, and in November last I wrote, offering to 
pay passage money and to guarantee salary, if only 
the Directors would find a man, but up to the present 
we have heard nothing. It is my private opinion 
that our Society is hardly in touch with the best kind 
of men in England. The latitudinarianism of so 
many Congregational ministers in England is a death- 
blow to the missionary spirit of our Churches. Look 
at our Society, heavily in debt, and hundreds of the 
members of Congregational Churches giving annual 
subscriptions of one or two guineas who have incomes 
of some thousands a year, and yet will not increase 
their subscriptions. What more forcible evidence is 
wanted of their lack of faith in missions ? " 

Doubtless, had Dr. Mackenzie lived he would have 
modified these statements ; but he had been strongly 



312 John Kenneth Mackenzie. 

impressed and pained, during his visit home, by the 
small interest generally felt in foreign missions. 

" As to the success of our work, I think it has 
been wonderful, especially considering our unfitness 
for the great struggle with darkness and sin in this 
land. Were we and the Churches who send us full 
of the Spirit of God, and sufficiently humbled and 
emptied of self for our Heavenly Father to manifest 
His marvellous power in and through us, of course 
success would be vastly more. But considering, as I 
say, what we are and what the Churches at home are, 
the results of our labour have been such as to call 
forth praise and thanksgiving to God. The work here 
is manifestly God's, and none but His. I have men 
around me in the hospital and medical school who are 
so clearly born of God that there can be no .question 
about it. The great sin of the present day is empha- 
tically unbelief. That is, unbelief in God, for there is 
plenty of faith to be found, only unfortunately it is 
not the right kind of faith ; it is faith in self, faith in 
our institutions, in our schemes, in our own wisdom. 
Faith in our Lord Jesus must ever go hand in 
hand with deep humility, as in the case of the cen- 
turion, and true humility, I fancy, is very scarce in 
the present day. Excuse my rambling on, and please 
do not think me downhearted about my work. I am 
full of hope, for never have I spent what I trust has 
been such a profitable year during my short life. 
The openings I have here are more than I could 
ever have expected. The Viceroy is remarkably 



GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. 313 

kind to me, and thoughtful of my work. There is 
plenty of money and abundance of opportunities, 
and the work could be extended indefinitely if we 
only had more men of the right stamp." 

In June of the same year the Doctor writes to his 
father : — 

" It is a great privilege to serve the Lord here in 
China. I feel so thankful to God for giving me this 
honour, and for leading me into a deeper apprecia- 
tion of it. In our hospital work we are daily meeting 
with men who have never heard of the way of salva- 
tion, and who have no joy in life, and it is our 
delightful privilege to tell them of a Saviour mighty 
to save. But, oh ! we need power ; the deadness of 
these souls is something awful ; their utter ignorance 
of what sin is, the fearful lethargy into which they 
have fallen, all reveal that our one great essential is 
power, — Divine, life-giving power. And bless God 
we have all this in Christ. When at the creation 
all was darkness and chaos, it was He who said, ' Let 
there be light, and there was light.' And it was He 
too who breathed into man's nostrils the breath of 
life, and man ' became a living soul.' If we did not 
constantly bear this in mind we should get dis- 
heartened, or else faithless in view of what we meet 
with daily. But not only have we to look back into 
the past for evidences of His mighty power : He 
vouchsafes to manifest it even here and now, to cheer 
our faith and to encourage to renewed energy. It 
is our joy to see from among these lifeless souls men 



314 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

truly born again, and exemplifying the spiritual life 
clearly and brightly amongst their fellows. It is a 
wonderful sight thus to see a dead soul come to life 
again ; no wonder there is joy in heaven. The Lord 
has been so gracious to me of late, giving me so much 
joy in my life, so much thorough satisfaction and 
rest. I can truly bless His holy Name for all His 
wonderful goodness and mercy towards me. Out- 
ward circumstances have very little to do with heart 
peace or real heart satisfaction. It is the presence 
of the living Saviour, and this alone, in our lives 
which gives it. 

" I am so glad to hear you are keeping so well, dear 
father. I hope you get little Maggie to learn some 
sweet hymns, and sing them to you. I should so like 
to hear that she sings praise to her loving Father in 
heaven. Do you often talk to her about how Jesus 
loves her ? I think it is a mistake to think that 
children do not or cannot enter into the comprehen- 
sion of spiritual things." 

Writing to his friend Colonel Duncan, with whom 
Mackenzie had corresponded at as frequent intervals 
as his busy life would permit ever since he came to 
China, he says : — 

" Oh, why do not more of the Lord's people come 
to this land ? It is evident that He is wanting to 
pour out salvation upon the people of China, but is 
hindered by the lack of messengers. I have just 
come from a meeting we hold every Friday evening 
for the study of the Scriptures, a believers' meeting ; 



GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE. $t$ 

and it was indeed a hallowed time, for the Lord's 
presence was there in large measure. It is for the 
special help of the dispensers and ward-attendants, 
who are all Christians, and the converted patients join 
in. As one after another spoke as the Lord moved 
him, I could not help blessing God for the manifesta- 
tion of His power. Only a few years ago many of 
these men were heathen, worshipping idols, and now 
they know God, and enjoy communion with Him. 
All are working Christians, seeking daily to teach and 
lead into the light the patients who throng our wards ; 
and the Lord has given us such access to the people, 
for from hundreds of miles they come seeking healing, 
and place themselves with childlike confidence in our 
hands. 

" As to myself, the dear Lord is blessing me beyond 
measure. I cannot recount His goodness, the instances 
are too numerous even to mention ; I can only praise 
and extol His holy Name. Since my return to China 
I have led, humanly speaking, a very lonely life, but 
the Saviour has led me in a way I could not have 
imagined. These last three years have been full of 
instruction to me. Though one of the Lord's chosen 
people, I was previously so ignorant of Him ; now, 
through His great mercy, I have been learning what 
it is in some measure to walk with Him and to hold 
close communion with Him. Oh, He has been so 
good to me in filling up my life with such unutterable 
joy and peace. 

" I have been greatly blessed in being kept from 



3i6 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

anxiety. ' In nothing be anxious/ etc., has proved 
of great comfort to me, both in regard to my 
family sorrows and my hospital cares, for with so 
many patients, and most of them surgical operation 
cases often of the greatest severity, humanly speaking 
I could scarcely have borne the strain ; yet I think I 
was never in better health, and my heart as light and 
free from care as I could wish. Excuse my writing 
so much about myself, but I would testify to the 
wondrous grace and mercy of the Lord, whose I 
am/' 



CHAPTER XV. 
GROWING IN GRACE. 



Growth in Spiritual Life — Relations with Foreign Community 
— Bible Study — Interest in " Blue-jackets " — Real Cross- 
Bearing — Continental Sundays — Welcomes to New 
Missionaries — Congenial Companionship — Opinion of 
New Theology — Visit to Country Districts — Rough 
Travelling — Chinese Inns — A Self-willed Carter — Fair 
Day — Found at Last ! — A Roman Catholic Church — 
Hospitable Friends — Teacher No. 2 — A Little Flock — 
The Crippled Schoolmaster — Too Late — Priest-Doctors — 
The Salt Merchant. 



CHAPTER XV. 
GROWING IN GRACE. 

THE Christian life was always spoken of by St 
Paul as a progressive thing, the high aim placed 
before every believer being that of attaining to the 
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. And 
as God, through His servant, would never have called 
His people to tasks they could not perform, to heights 
impossible of attainment, we know that the Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ has pledged Himself to supply 
all that is necessary to effect in us that to which He 
calls us. 

In Dr. Mackenzie's life this principle of growth was 
strikingly manifest. He had always been an earnest 
and devoted missionary since first he set foot on 
Chinese soil, and he had ever given great prominence 
to the evangelistic side of Medical Mission work. 

But during the last year or so of his life his growth 
in likeness to His Divine Master was evident to all, 
and that passion for souls which can only possess any 
heart as the result of the indwelling of God's Holy 
Spirit in abundant measure, became the inspiring 
thought of his life, During his early years in Tien-tsin 

3*9 



320 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

he had, to some slight extent, shared in the innocent 
and healthful recreations of his fellow-countrymen in 
the community. He was fond of riding, and, as we 
have seen, experienced great benefit from his morning 
gallop over the plains ; he enjoyed skating, and during 
the long northern winter used to secure almost daily 
a limited time for this healthful recreation, while 
during -the rest of the year he not unfrequently took 
a turn at lawn tennis. Some will perhaps look upon 
it as a defect in his Christian character, that as time 
went on he began to feel such an absorbing interest 
in the things that are unseen and eternal, that Bible 
study filled up most of his leisure time, when his 
manifold professional duties were finished, almost to 
the exclusion of ordinary social intercourse. 

He rarely took any recreation, with the exception 
of his daily " constitutional," which he looked upon in 
the light of a duty for health's sake. He used to say 
sometimes, that on account of those in our Eastern 
communities who frequently complain of the absence 
of most missionaries from all their entertainments and 
seasons of recreation, he had determined to make a 
fair trial, and see as much of English society as time 
would allow ; but he had not found this experiment 
a success, and had therefore given it up. 

Without doubt the highest ideal of the Christian 
life is that a believer in Jesus, following closely in the 
footsteps of his Divine Master, should be able to 
go into all society, as Christ Himself did, shedding 
around him the blessed influence of a life filled with 



GROWING IN GRACE. 321 

the spirit of love and boundless charity ; for Chris- 
tians are to be in the world as their Master was in 
it, to bless, and comfort, and strengthen. This is the 
ideal life, but it is perhaps only attained by the few. 

It is no unfrequent circumstance to see the Chris- 
tian, who has earnestly desired to be " in the world, 
yet not of it," by slow degrees losing the freshness 
of his first love, and finding, by sad experience, how 
difficult a task it is to keep his garments unspotted 
from the world. To escape this trying ordeal, the 
monks and hermits of old separated themselves entirely 
from the world of daily life and business, shunning 
the holy and happy influences of the home life which 
our Saviour Himself had blessed and sanctified. 

We think they were wrong now, those holy men of 
old, though we honour their noble lives and utter self- 
abnegation, and we remember at the same time that 
our Lord's life was not of the ascetic type at all. He 
never shrank from any festive gathering to which He 
was invited, and was found mixing with every grade 
of society that Judea had to offer. Yet He ever 
went, like the physician into the plague-stricken 
district, to heal and to save. 

So that in these matters it is not for us to judge 
each other, but for each to seek guidance as special 
circumstances arise, remembering that, as one has 
well said, both as regards the saints of ancient times 
and the followers of Christ in these later days, " God 
will judge us at last by our sincerity, and not by 
our wisdom." 

21 



322 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Dr. Mackenzie was, however, well known in the 
Tien-tsin community in his professional capacity, for 
he was frequently called in for consultation by Drs. 
Frazer and Irwin ; and as one among them wrote, 
when he was called away, " He had endeared himself 
greatly by his kindness and singular delicacy of 
manner, while his skill as a physician inspired uni- 
versal confidence." 

In a letter to his father during the summer he 
says : — 

" I have not written lately, I have been altogether 
too busy. Dr. Irwin, the only doctor at present in 
the settlement, was taken ill with acute dysentery, 
and I had to attend him and his patients. He is 
better, and is now gone to Taku for the sea-air, and 
I have still to look after his practice. The foreign 
community numbers over three hundred, and this 
month of June we are having extra hot weather, 
temperature over 100° Fahr. in the shade, and so more 
people get sick. I am happily very well, but work 
has too much of a rush about it just now to please 
me. Dr. Macfarlane is helping me now with the 
students, so that frees me somewhat." 

Dr. Mackenzie always felt a great admiration and 
sympathy for men of noble character with whom he 
came in contact, who were hindered by " honest 
doubt " from any open profession of faith in Christ 
or an active Christian life. " They are not far from 
the kingdom," he would say sometimes. 

At his death a slip of paper was found within the 



GROWING IN GRACE. 323 

covers of his Bible, on which subjects for prayer for 
each day of the week were noted down. Among 
more general subjects, he had particular days for 
prayer for friends in England, for the medical 
students, and for certain members of the foreign 
community in whom he felt specially interested. 

His fondness for Bible study has been alluded to. 
A striking evidence of this was found in the Bible 
he had in use at the time of his death, which bore 
the date of January 1888, and could therefore have 
only been in use for about three months. Passages 
had been marked in almost every part of both Old and 
New Testaments ; while whole books, such as Exodus 
and the Song of Songs, had been carefully studied, 
and the lives of particular prophets and kings, like 
Samuel and Hezekiah, had been closely followed, 
many appropriate and thoughtful remarks being 
noted down in the margin. 

His own circumstances formed the key to many of 
the passages marked. " As a man chasteneth his son 
so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee " (Deut. viii. 5 
" Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou 
disquieted within me ? Hope thou in God : for I shall 
yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance " 
(Psalm xliii. 5). Against the passage in Deut. viii. 17, 
" My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten 
me this wealth," occurs the word " Blind ! " probably 
suggested by an undercurrent of thought regarding 
the great facilities and large pecuniary help God had 
granted him for carrying on the hospital, together 



324 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

with the accumulated savings which had provided a 
large reserve fund for the future carrying on of the 
medical work, as he hoped. 

Ezekiel's call and commission had been carefully 
studied, and also the life of King Hezekiah, the last 
passage marked being, singularly enough, " And all 
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him 
honour at his death ; " a statement which could be 
used with equal appropriateness to describe the state 
of feeling in the city in which Dr. Mackenzie lived, 
when so shortly after he was removed by death. 

A few months before, a friend had sent out to the 
Doctor a copy of the well-known text-book " Daily 
Light on the Daily Path." He had found this so 
helpful, that it was his intention to translate and 
arrange it for the benefit of the Chinese converts, 
had his life been spared.* 

Dr. Mackenzie had always a strong conviction that 
the Christian life should be one of gladness and 
rejoicing, and that we have no right to allow the 
sorrows and trials which may shadow our path to 
destroy our peace, or fill our hearts with undue care. 
Speaking one day of a person who was suffering 
severely from depression, and whose convalescence 
from a severe illness had thus been hindered, he 
remarked : — 

" Yes, I am well aware he has enough to trouble 
him, but then we have no right to dwell morbidly 

* This work has been undertaken by two members of the 
London Mission, Miss Moreton and the Rev. Hopkyn Rees. 



GROWING IN GRACE. 32$ 

upon the trials of this life. If I allowed myself to 
dwell upon my own sorrows I might be the most 
sorrowful of men, but this is not God's will in sending 
us these means of discipline. We are rather to rise 
above them, and find our joy in work for Him." 

Dr. Mackenzie was always deeply interested in the 
welfare of the seamen of the various ships of war 
which wintered in Tien-tsin, and was a supporter of 
the Gospel Temperance Movement. He had little 
faith, however, in any but spiritual methods as a 
means of helping and elevating them. Indeed, his 
one idea in all his intercourse with his fellow-men 
was to bring them into personal contact with a living 
Saviour. 

The Doctor almost invariably received great 
assistance from the naval surgeons of the various 
nationalities, and formed a warm and lasting friend- 
ship with some of them. Of one he writes : — 

" On Wednesday afternoons we give a holiday to 
the medical students, and then I try and get a walk 

with Dr. , a very dear Christian friend on board 

the English gunboat. When you do meet with 
a Christian officer in the navy you find him an 
aggressive one, a sort of Hedley Vicars. It may 
seem strange to you to hear there are so few Christian 
men out here, and it is strange ; but whether or not 
it is the result of Eastern life, with its greater luxury 
and ease for foreigners, it is a fact that, with few 
exceptions, the religious life is discarded in China 
by our fellow-countrymen. Such a statement as this 



326 John Kenneth Mackenzie. 

would be badly received by many, for great numbers 
claim to be Christians ; but what men object to is 
( being religious,' as they like to call it ; in other 
words, trying to follow Christ." 

Referring to the Memoir of his friend, John Gordon 
of Pitburg and Parkhill, which he had lately been 
reading, the Doctor says : — 

" His was a noble life ; such singleness of purpose 
and consecration is only, alas, too rare. So many of 
us fear to be singular, and fear what men will think 
of us, rather than simply what our Master would have 
us do. I lent the book to a friend of mine, a bright 
young Christian, who stands almost alone among his 
fellows in witnessing for the truth. One does admire 
a man who takes up his cross and follows Christ in 
these communities in China, for it is a real cross- 
bearing." 

In a letter to a friend, a former Tien-tsin resident, 
he says : — 

" I trust you will be settled in a port where you 
will have happy service for the Lord. This has 
been an unusually worldly winter, even for Tien-tsin. 
They have had the municipal band playing at the 
skating rink on Sundays regularly. The introduction 
of so many French and German residents has tended 
to turn our Sunday into one after the continental 
model, — games and paper hunts and other amuse- 
ments being held more frequently, I think, on Sunday 
than on other days, and printed notices to this effect 
come round in the most open manner. Well, perhaps 



GROWING IN GRACE. 3 2 7 

this is not a thing to be altogether sorry for, as it 
compels the Lord's children to separate themselves 
more thoroughly from the world." 

Dr. Mackenzie longed earnestly to see the gospel 
making rapid progress in China, and for this reason 
always warmly welcomed the arrival of new mis- 
sionaries. 

In the autumn of 1887 he was cheered by the 
coming of some whose arrival was a source of special 
satisfaction to him. The first of these was one with 
whom he had been engaged in Christian work in 
Bristol many years before, and whose way had been 
opened up, after many days, to come out to the 
mission field in connection with the China Inland 
Mission. His letter to this friend of former days 
contains the following passage : — 

" Let me give you a hearty welcome to this land in 
which I have lived now for twelve years, and certainly 
bless the Lord for giving me the honour and privilege 
of ever coming here." 

The other missionary in whose arrival he took a 
special interest was the medical colleague who came 
out to join his friend Mr. Gilmour in the Mongolian 
Mission. 

More than eighteen months before, Dr. Mackenzie 
had been appointed by the Tien-tsin Committee, 
on account of his deep interest in the matter, to 
write an urgent appeal to the Directors of the 
L. M. S. for a medical colleague for Mr. Gilmour in 
Mongolia ; and so deeply did he feel the necessity of 



328 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

such an appointment, that after pleading the fact that 
our Lord avoided sending forth His disciples singly, 
since He knew how dependent we are upon human 
sympathy, he went on to say, that even, if necessary, 
he was willing that his fondly-cherished scheme of 
having a second medical missionary for his colleague 
in Tien-tsin should, for the time, be set aside, and the 
next doctor sent to North China be designated to the 
Mongolian Mission. 

It was therefore a matter of special rejoicing to 
Dr. Mackenzie when, after long waiting, the news 
came that a medical colleague for Mr. Gilmour was 
on the way ; and he wrote the following letter of 
welcome to Dr. Roberts, who, in the providence of 
God, was destined, in the short space of a few months, 
to take up and carry on Dr. Mackenzie's own work, 
when he received his sudden summons to the higher 
service above. 

" Allow me to offer you a most loving welcome to 
China. I think this is, beyond other countries, the 
field for Medical Missions. The work is a glorious 
one, and I thank God that I have been honoured to 
take some part in the effort to bring China to Christ. 
I am sure you too will bless the day that first brought 
you to this land." 

After an appreciative reference to his valued 
friend and Dr. Roberts' contemplated colleague, Mr. 
Gilmour, the Doctor concludes the letter with the 
following texts : " My soul, wait thou only upon God ; 
for my expectation is from Him. He only is my 



GROWING IN GRACE. 329 

rock : I shall not be moved. Power belongeth unto 
God " (Psalm lxii:). 

It was decided that Dr. Roberts should remain in 
Tien-tsin for some months, to get a start with the 
language. They shared the same house together, 
and, as is evident from Dr. Mackenzie's constant 
reference to his new friend in his home letters, this 
arrangement was a source of much satisfaction to him. 

" I am very well, and the work is prospering," he 
writes. " It is such a pleasure to have a congenial 
friend in the same house with one. ... I think it is 
good for digestion, not to speak of other benefits — 
one eats food with more enjoyment. We have such 
pleasant walks and talks together. Dr. Roberts is 
well acquainted with Mr. Meyer of Leicester, who is 
doing such good service for the Church of Christ." 

Dr. Mackenzie held strongly to the doctrines of 
grace, and had no 'sympathy at all with the new 
theology. 

" What do you think of Spurgeon's action ? " he 
asks in a letter to his father. " I am delighted with 
the stand he has taken, and trust it may do much 
to awaken thoughtful students of the Bible to the 
danger of many of the theories floating around. If 
only it leads men to test for themselves — to search 
and prove whether these things be so — it will be 
doing good service. We are too much inclined to 
take things at second hand. Now that we have a 
good revised Bible no one need say, c I cannot go to 
the fountain head for information.' " 



33o JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

The presence of two medical colleagues in Tien-tsin 
at this time made it possible for Dr. Mackenzie to 
carry out his long-cherished purpose of paying a visit 
to the country districts around Tien-tsin, with the 
view of strengthening the many scattered Christians 
who had been led to a knowledge of Jesus as their 
Saviour within the wards of the hospital. Many of 
them had received baptism upon a profession of their 
faith in Christ, and had returned to their homes to 
witness for Him in places where the gospel had never 
before been heard. 

And it was thus that he spent the last Christmas 
and New Year's holidays of his life, in the company 
of one of his dispensers, who, like all his assistants 
and servants, was his devoted friend. During this 
three weeks of itineration he lived with the country 
people as a guest in their homes, sharing their humble 
hospitality, and endearing himself to them in a way 
that will not soon be forgotten. 

It was Dr. Mackenzie's intention to write an 
account of this journey, which was to him a source 
of much encouragement and rejoicing, because it 
enabled him to see how widely the Lord was using 
the work done in the hospital wards, and the men 
there brought to a knowledge of the Saviour, to 
spread the good news of salvation far and wide 
through the surrounding districts. The discomforts 
of such a journey in the bitter cold of a North China 
winter, the separation from friends at the New Year's 
season of reunion, were of small account to him in 



Crowing in grace. 331 

comparison with the joy he had in seeing the progress 
of God's kingdom in the land, and finding the men 
who had confessed Christ in Tien-tsin standing firm 
amid the trials and persecution of their own home 
life. 

From various sources, such as note-books, letters, 
etc., I glean the following account of this last journey 
of itineration : — 

" The patients who have given hopeful evidence of 
a change of heart, under the teaching of the Spirit of 
God, often live three or four or more days' journey 
from Tien-tsin, and except in the event of their visiting 
us again, we have few opportunities of following them 
up. I took advantage of the valued presence of Drs. 
Macfarlane and Roberts to take a several weeks' 
trip into the country at the end of the year, for the 
purpose of visiting the homes of some of my old 
patients, to see how their Christianity was wearing 
among their neighbours. I had a companion in one 
of the dispensers, Chang Kung Mao, and a very 
encouraging journey it proved. 

" In making such a trip one has to hire a cart, 
without springs of course, and two mules to draw the 
vehicle, into which you put your bedding and such 
articles as you deem necessary for the journey. I 
was well wrapped up, having a sheep-skin coat, 
dog-skin stockings, felt boots, and felt and fur cap. 
The Chinese have no fires, except for cooking, and 
do not depend upon artificial heat, but upon a super- 
abundance of clothing, to keep the body warm. 



332 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

" On the first day we journeyed over a barren plain, 
mostly following the course of the Grand Canal. The 
land had been under water through the canal having 
broken its banks, and there was much distress and 
poverty in the district. We stayed the first night at 
Ning-hai-hien, and spoke to three of the men belong- 
ing to the inn about Jesus ; one, an old man of seventy, 
seemed much interested. The best inns have brick 
beds called kangs, but most of them off the high road 
have only a raised earthen platform at one end of 
the room, which serves both for bed and seat. The 
windows in every case are made of paper, and are of 
course full of holes ; the floor is of earth, and altogether 
inns in China are not desirable places. But one soon 
gets used to anything, and if your health holds good 
all goes well. Being very hungry from the cold, dry 
air circulating around all day, when you get in at 
night you get some hot food, in rare cases rice and 
a little meat, and after your meal you feel inclined to 
go to sleep. Your surroundings are too uncomfortable 
to want dwelling upon, so you pull your cap over 
your ears, dispense with your boots, the only article 
of attire you remove, and throwing yourself on the 
mattress, cover yourself with the native bed-quilt, and 
go to sleep. 

" The second morning we rose two or three hours 
before the sun, and soon after ate half a hot sweet 
potato, weighing a catty. We had rather a tiresome 
time before reaching the next town. The carter 
came to a part of the road where there was ice, and 



GROWING IN GRACE. 333 

insisted upon trying to cross, even though it looked 
unsafe. We urged him to return, but he only beat 
the mules the more, and first one and then the other 
floundered into the water, breaking the ice in their 
struggles. The left cart wheel went through the ice 
into a hole, and we were all but over. Finally the 
shaft mule fell down, and had to be unharnessed, and 
then the carter agreed to turn back. He harnessed 
first one mule and then the other to the back of the 
cart, but it would not move ; the man was meanwhile 
cursing the mules with all his might, calling them by 
every opprobrious name, though it was solely due to 
his own obstinacy that this trouble had come. Some 
passing carters were appealed to for help, but they 
paid no heed ; at last some poor travellers on foot 
came along, and thev helped, with the mules, to drag 
the cart out of the ice. 

" The next day we dined at a place where a fair 
was being held. All sorts of things were offered for 
sale on extempore stalls in the very midst of the 
streets. It looked like a picture of Vanity Fair in 
the ' Pilgrim's Progress.' Every imaginable Chinese 
requirement was there, from horses and bullocks to 
coloured cloths, drapery, and eatables. 

" We have great difficulty in finding our way on 
this barren plain, for the roads are constantly cross- 
ing and dividing. Nor were our difficulties over 
when we had succeeded in our search, and reached 
the village or market-town we were seeking. 

" As an example, let me describe what took place 



334 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

at a village called Ba-wang. Upon entering we soon 
found ourselves surrounded by a curious crowd, eager 
to gaze at the strange spectacle of a foreigner in the 
place. Not seeing the face of the friend we are 
seeking among them, we enquire of the nearest person, 
' Will you kindly direct us to the house of Mr. Chang ? ' 
' He docs not live here,' is the immediate reply, 
uttered most emphatically, as though to shut off at 
once all hope. ' But isn't this village called Ba-wang ? ' 
' Yes, it is.' ' Well, then, we know that Mr. Chang does 
live here.' ' Oh, it's that man, is it ? ' as if waking up 
suddenly to lively recollection. ' Well, he has gone 
from home ; he does not live in this place now. 
There is no man of that name here at all ! ' 

"These are evidently impromptu answers, given 
without thought, so we have to begin and make more 
particular enquiries, and give some explanations. 
1 Look here, friends,' we say, ' we know Mr. Chang ; 
he was a patient in the Tien-tsin hospital ; he had 
bad eyes for over four years, one was nearly blind. 
He is about so tall, is a thin man, and has three 
children ; now, you see, we are acquainted with him. 
We are on the road travelling, and have called to pay 
him a visit. Now won't you tell us where he lives ? 
Really now, we have not come to collect a debt, nor 
do we want to borrow travelling expenses from him ! ' 

" These remarks are rendered necessary on account 
of the suspiciousness of the villagers, who have a great 
antipathy to strangers, and evidently look upon a man 
as an enemy till he has proved himself to be a friend 



GROWING IN GRACE. 335 

1 We assure you we have only come to see him. We 
are Christians.' By-and-bye the suspicions begin to 
disappear. 

" ' What did you say his name was ? ' they enquire. 
1 Chang ? No, there is no one of that name.' Suddenly 
some one in the crowd exclaims, ' Why, it's " G'ar " ! ' 
calling the man by some pet or nickname he has 
borne since childhood. Apparently in many cases 
their own proper names are not used or even known 
among the villagers. ' Oh, if it's that man you 
mean, G'ar lives at the other end of the village.' 
And so at last we are allowed to discover our 
friend's whereabouts, and receive a warm welcome 
from him. 

" At another large market-town, where the Roman 
Catholics were strong, we sought two men of the 
name of Hu, who had formerly been patients ; but 
amongst a large clan of the same name we could not 
trace our friends. At another place we found a Roman 
Catholic church, built with brick, after a foreign 
model, with little turrets and a large crucifix on the 
top. There was a foreign priest living there, so I 
called on him, and he kindly took me over the church. 
He spoke no English, and had lived in this village of 
two hundred families for three years. He said there 
were thirty families of converts, and they had built 
the church at their own cost. The interior was rather 
dirty, and the pictures of the Virgin and the saints 
were rather tawdry. 

" We next made our way to Hsiao-shih, where four 



336 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

men lived who had been baptized, all bearing the 
same surname, Hu. Kung Mao, the dispenser, went on 
to seek them out, leaving me in the cart. He found 
all our friends were absent at a large fair in the neigh- 
bourhood, but as soon as their relatives heard who 
we were, they came out and seized hold of us, and 
literally took possession. They would not hear of 
our going to put up at the inn. Leading the mules 
to the door of the father of one of the ex-patients, 
they quickly conveyed all our belongings on to the 
kang of an inner room. 

" After a while the son returned from the fair, and 
gave us a hearty welcome. He is a fine young fellow 
of twenty-two, the eldest son of a rich farmer, who 
farms his own land of one hundred and fifty Chinese 
acres. He reads w r ell, is intelligent, and was baptized 
while in the hospital; he was an in-patient, suffer- 
ing from rheumatism. His father is a thoughtful, 
intelligent man of over forty, who treated us in the 
most hospitable manner, insisting upon feeding our 
carters and attending to our mules. He pressed us 
to remain with him some days. Though not pro- 
fessedly a Christian, he has learned a good deal of 
the doctrine from his son. 

" We were in the houses of three other Christians, 
and saw not a trace of idolatry anywhere. 

" Another man, the son of a well-to-do shopkeeper, 
had been a patient ; he reads well, and keeps his 
father's accounts in the shop. He has an elder 
brother, who seemed bright and interested, but cannot 



GROWING IN GRACE. 33; 

read. We dined with this family, and afterwards 
preached in their house to many visitors. 

"Two other old patients, each over forty years of 
age, lived in this place. One of them, before his 
conversion, was known as ' Xo. 2 Teacher.' He is 
not an educated man, but has a gift for story-telling. 
Before he came to Tien-tsin he did not know a 
character ; now he can read his Bible. We dined at 
his house and preached there, Kung Mao telling with 
power the story of the prodigal son to the assembled 
villagers. This man is poor, and his eyes still give 
him trouble ; he has no land, but works for others ; he 
has a son in business in the place. Another man, 
named Shen, is less earnest ; he wished us, however, 
to go and dine with him the day we left. He farms 
his own land of forty acres. He was in the hospital 
for granular lids, and improved under treatment, but 
the trouble has recurred. These four Christians meet 
together for conversation about the Word of God and 
prayer, the three earnest ones every evening. Deng- 
Yung joins them occasionally, but it is not convenient 
for him, on account of his bad eyesight, to go regu- 
larly at night. Tao-ping's father told us that after 
the Chinese New Year he should give them a room 
to hold worship in,— an old schoolroom, which is at 
present let. The interest in this village is great, and 
the Lord gave us an open door in every direction. 
The Shen family earnestly begged us to stay longer 
with them, but we rather hesitated at putting them to 
so much expense in entertaining us, as they would 

22 



338 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

allow us to pay for nothing, and every meal was a 
feast 

" Tao-ping, the son, rode over on his mule to the 
next town we wished to visit, to show us the way. 
The man we wished to see, a Christian named Wang, 
is poor, having only ten acres of land. He gave us 
a hearty welcome, and in the presence of a crowd 
of fellow-villagers testified for Christ. We spoke a 
few words to the people, left some books, exhorted 
Wang to keep near Jesus, and soon left. Wang's 
nephew, a young man of twenty, said he had learnt 
the doctrines from his uncle ; he believed in Christ, 
and was hoping, after the New Year, to come to 
Tien-tsin and receive baptism. A number of the 
villagers had learnt something of the truth from 
Wang. 

"At the next place we sought for a man of the 
name of Ch'en, but found he was away from home 
at the district city, where he was a party in a 
lawsuit, which had been brought against him by 
another man, relating to his right of ownership in the 
shops where he carried on his business. We were 
disappointed at not seeing Ch'en, as he had been long 
in the hospital with lupus of the face. However, we 
laid the matter before the Lord, and prayed for 
guidance and for a blessing on the man, and went 
on to the inn. It was the worst we had come across 
yet, and after our snug quarters at the Shen village 
we felt the cold bitterly on this Christmas Eve. The 
walls were made of sun-dried mud bricks, unplastered, 



GROWING IN GRACE. 339 

and so the wind came through them as through a 
sieve, and it was so bitterly cold that we did not get 
much sleep. 

" Morning was welcome, and by daylight we were 
on our way. We considered whether we should go 
to the city and seek for Ch'en ; but we thought the 
search would prove so difficult, that we decided to go 
on to the next patient on our list. On our way, 
however, we most unexpectedly met Mr. Ch'en. He 
had finished his business on the previous evening, and 
hearing from a friend that some people from Tien-tsin 
were seeking him, he started off first thing in the 
morning to look for us at our inn. We had started 
before he arrived, and had we gone by the other 
road should have missed him. We felt we had been 
guided of the Lord. We returned with Ch'en to his 
home, and entered his father's house. The father, a 
most courteous old gentleman of sixty-five, received 
us most kindly, as did also his mother and younger 
brother. The room was soon full of neighbours, to 
whom we preached, and afterwards we all, Ch'en in- 
cluded, prayed together. We were hungry and tired, 
and soon after went to our inn and had a late 
breakfast. This was on Christmas Day. Ch'en's 
father wished us to stay with them, but as they were 
not well off we declined. After this we preached 
until quite tired out, speaking on the parable of 
the fig-tree, the prodigal son, the miracle of healing 
the palsied man borne of four, and blind Bartimaeus. 
Ch'en did some preaching and teaching too, and told 



34Q JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

us that his father and next neighbour were well 
inclined to the gospel ; the former was very intel- 
ligent, and had read some of the New Testament. 
The innkeeper, who was a friend of Ch'en's, treated 
us most kindly ; he knew something of the doctrine 
some time before, as Mr. Perkins had stayed at his 
inn and left some books. 

" At the next town we sought for a man named 
Lin, about forty years of age, who had left the 
hospital nine months ago, after undergoing an opera- 
tion for gangrene, having had his right foot removed. 
He was originally a very small farmer ; after losing 
his foot he was unable to cultivate his land, so he 
had to sell it, and being, for a countryman, a very 
good scholar, his fellow-clansmen, all with the same 
surname, made him schoolmaster in the village, 
and on our arrival we found him installed in this 
capacity. 

" But alas for his Christianity ! No sooner had he 
reached home than he began to trouble himself as 
to how he would ever be able to maintain himself 
now he was a cripple. As it seemed as if he was 
entirely dependent upon the help of his neighbours, 
he was much afraid of offending them, so he kept 
silent about the doctrine, and concealed the fact 
that he was a Christian, and none of his neighbours 
knew it. As soon as we reached his house he began 
to explain to us why he had not preached to the 
villagers ; he dare not offend them, as they sent 
their children to be taught by him. We preached 



GROWING IN GRACE. ^\ 

for some time to the neighbours, who flocked into 
the schoolroom ; but they took little interest in what 
we said, we fear, because Lin had been hiding his 
light under a bushel. 

" After exhorting Lin to cease to fear man and to 
fear God, and so get peace in his heart, we gave 
him some books and a calendar, and left. Next day 
we crossed the Grand Canal, and made our way to 
a place where two brothers named T'sai were living, 
who were farmers. 

" They were in the hospital about ten months ago ; 
the younger brother's foot requiring amputation, the 
elder brother was there nursing him. There were 
five brothers in the family, and the elder was the 
only scholar among them ; that is to say, none of the 
others knew a character, while he could read and 
write well. He took from the first a deep interest 
in 'the gospel, and soon declared himself on the 
Lord's side. He was a most hopeful, earnest, and 
solid character, while his younger brother was dull 
and apathetic, and though he also desired baptism 
before leaving the hospital, I think it was without 
any deep conviction of sin, but rather at the instiga- 
tion and under the teaching of his brother. The 
truth was very real to the elder man, and we hoped 
much from our visit to him. 

" Kung Mao went on before to find the family out, 
and came back with the sad news that Djen Dsung 
was dead. The very day after he brought back his 
younger brother, recovered after the operation, he 



342 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

was himself taken ill, with what disease they could 
not tell us. They said that for over eight months 
he lay ill on his bed, and all the doctors within reach 
failed to relieve him, and he died just a month before 
our arrival. We went with the lame brother into the 
house and saw the old mother ; their father was still 
alive, but he was away at a fair. 

"The old lady received us most kindly, and told 
us how her son had longed to see us before he died, 
and had wept because it was impossible, — wept 
several times, the poor mother said, and was always 
praying, reading his Bible, and talking to them about 
the doctrine. How strange it seems, humanly speak- 
ing, that this man should be called away just when 
he had such a work to do ; but God knows best. 

"The younger brother seemed very listless, but 
the mother was quite hopeful, and sat with us all 
the time we were there, and from her evident interest 
we directed our remarks mainly to her. The father, 
it seems, is still an idolater. 

"At another town we met three more Christians, 
and had a service with them at our inn. One of them, 
named Yang, had been at the hospital waiting on 
his son, who afterwards died. He was baptized before 
leaving ; he owns several shops, one a cash shop. He 
had lent his Bible to a friend, who had not returned 
it. The second, named Chang, is engaged as buyer 
in a large distillery. He buys grains and dates, and 
is constantly travelling about the country. All these 
three men can read well and pray aloud. 



GROWING IN GRACE. 343 

" At the next place we visited we stayed the nighb 
Miau-chia-tswang is a town where idolatry is rife. 
When ill the people invite priests to come to their 
houses ; they burn incense and go through idolatrous 
ceremonies, but give no medicine. A Christian 
named Ch'en, whose house we were seeking, a good 
scholar who reads well, we found to be well known 
as a believer in the place. He has met with much 
opposition. One man had learned the doctrine from 
him, and believed in Christ, but feared to confess his 
faith on account of the displeasure of his friends. His 
father and mother knew something of the gospel, but 
were very indifferent. We preached to them and to 
many neighbours. 

" At the last place we visited, about thirty miles 
from Tien-tsin, we saw a man named Leo, who had 
been in the hospital two years ago. He is a farmer, 
with one hundred acres of land, and also a salt 
merchant, scraping the salt off the surface of the 
soil, and afterwards putting it through some process 
to purify it. He has two children, ten and eleven years 
of age ; the elder had committed the catechism to 
memory. He has also two brothers ; one of them is 
an educated man and keeps a school. Our old patient 
only possessed the catechism and a tract on the 
parable of the prodigal son. He is a good scholar, 
speaks well, and is fond of preaching the doctrine. 
The keeper of our inn is a friend of his, and seems 
a most hopeful man." 



CHAPTER XVI. 
LAST THINGS. 



Chinese New Year — Paying off Epistolary Debts — Thoughts 
about Prayer — The Last Report — Last Home Letter — 
Busy Days — Desirability of Closing Medical School — The 
Vivisection Question — The Last Sunday — Illness — Good 
Friday — "I think the Lord is Calling me" — A Solemn 
Farewell — "Quite Ready to go!" — The Dawn of Easter 
Day — A Universal Sorrow — Funeral Honours — The 
Christian's Good-night — At the Grave — A Chinaman's 
Testimony — His Last Prayer — Loss of Official Patronage 
— " I will never Leave Thee " — Appointments of Medical 
Graduates — Last Memorials — A Biography in Stone. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

LAST THINGS, 

THE Chinese New Year's season is the great 
holiday time of the whole year in the Middle 
Kingdom ; even the poorest coolies try to take their 
ease for a few days, and almost all business is sus- 
pended for nearly a fortnight. So that for a few 
days the necessaries of life are purchased with 
difficulty. 

Of course every one is too busily engaged in anti- 
cipations of pleasure-making to attend to any bodily 
ailments, and at this season the dispensaries and 
hospitals are almost deserted. 

Consequently Dr. Mackenzie was able to take a 
hard-earned holiday, which, as we find from his diary, 
he spent in answering an accumulation of correspond- 
ence with friends both in England and China. 

" Chinese New Year is the great occasion for 
paying off old debts," he writes, " and I am following 
the very good custom set by the Chinese in this 
respect, in trying to wipe off some epistolary debts." 

To his friend Dr. Atterbury of Peking he wrote as 
follows : — 

"I wish more would write for the Journal (The 
347 



348 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

China Medical Missionary Journal), and send a variety, 
not merely confining themselves to medical matters. 
There is the missionary side . of the question. 

" Praise the Lord we have had a good year here in the 
hospital. Thirty-nine patients were baptized during 
the year. I feel so grateful to the Lord for thus 
working, when there is so much in me that is dis- 
pleasing to Him. Yet all the more is the glory His. 

" He is teaching me some things ; one to have 
more child-like faith, to believe that what He says 
He means. And when Jesus says, ' Ask, and ye shall 
receive,' I now know, as I never before did, that Jesus 
will answer my prayers, perhaps sometimes by not 
giving me that for which I pray. This year, God 
helping me, I intend to trust Him more to use the 
hospital to the salvation of souls. I was searching 
out all the promises concerning prayer in the Word 
the other day. Oh, they are so full and wonderful ; 
I am so shamefaced that I have been so dumb before 
the Lord for so long. Then, as to united prayer, two 
of you agreeing together : we have had a united 
noon-day prayer-meeting, just a few of us, which has 
been much blessed to myself. 

" Simplicity, directness, straightforwardness — these 
are all needed in prayer. I have been for years 
hypocritically repeating words in prayer, when I 
never expected God to answer. How displeasing 
to a loving Father is such conduct. The Lord 
forgive me and teach me ! Isn't it a privilege to 
trust the Saviour?" 



LAST THINGS. 349 



To Mr. Stooke, of the China Inland Mission, 
Chefoo, with whom he had been engaged in Christian 
work many years before in Bristol, he writes : — 

" I suppose you are hard at work at this delightful 
language. Well, it only wants pegging away at, and 
patience wins. 

" I was away in the country on a journey last 
December, a thing I cannot often manage, but I 
have two medical colleagues for this winter, Drs. 
Macfarlane and Roberts. I had a good time, and 
was prospered by the good Lord. Then when I got 
back we had a capital week of prayer. Gilmour was 
in from Mongolia, and we managed to get two little 
Bible readings every day, and God blessed us." 

During this New Year season Dr. Mackenzie also 
wrote the following interesting report of the work 
done in the hospital wards and dispensary during 
the year : — 

" In accordance with the wishes of the Directors, I beg to 
forward the following report of the work in my hands for 
1887 :— 

u Tien-tsin Medical Mission. 

"Dispensary. — Number of attendances during the year, 

13,799- 

"Hospital. — Number of in-patients during the year, 591. 

a Medical School. — Number of students in training, 9. 

"The in-patients were thirty-five more than during the 
year 1886, and I think they were drawn from a better class 
in the social scale. The work in all its branches has gone 
on uninterruptedly. The presence and help of my dear 
friends, Drs. Macfarlane and Roberts, have been of great 



350 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

assistance to the cause, and a source of much comfort to 
myself. While naturally their main energies are directed 
to the study of the language, yet they have found time to 
render valuable help — not the least valuable being their 
earnest daily prayer for God's blessing. Dr. Macfarlane has 
also given much service in the instruction of the medical 
students, thus freeing me for more direct Christian labour 
amongst the patients. 

" In its medical aspect the work has been growing yearly 
more and more full of interest. As the hospital becomes 
more widely known we have a greater range of cases 
presenting themselves, and consequently have broader 
scope for usefulness ; and with the very efficient help now 
at our command, we are able to undertake surgical opera- 
tions of great magnitude, which, while being causes of 
much anxiety, are also, when brought to a successful issue, 
reasons for profound thankfulness. If our Directors be- 
longed largely to the medical fraternity, I should be tempted 
to become enthusiastic over some of the l cases ' treated ; 
but this not being so, I will endeavour to keep my medical 
enthusiasm under proper control. 

" Private Practice amongst the Wealthy Classes. — As many 
and various forms ot effort go to advance our common 
cause, I would like to draw attention to the good work 
accomplished this year by our chief medical assistant, Dr. 
Lin-luen-fai. He was one of the Government students 
sent to America to obtain a good English education. After 
his return he passed through the medical course in our 
school, and received his diploma, coming out first in his 
class. More than three years ago he was attached as a 
permanent assistant to aid in the hospital and school work, 
receiving from the Viceroy a salary of forty taels a month. 
In hospital and dispensary practice you necessarily fail to 
reach large numbers of the wealthy and official classes. 
At the commencement of the Medical Mission in Tien-tsin 
I gave up a considerable share of my time to this depart- 



LAST THINGS. 351 



ment — viz., visiting the. wealthy in their own homes. 
While resulting in much pecuniary gain to the hospital at 
a time when such help was needed, yet the distances to 
be travelled, and the cumbrous etiquette from which you 
cannot in courtesy escape, absorb so much time, while the 
spiritual results are so meagre, that I gradually withdrew 
from it, and refused, except in very special cases, to visit 
patients at their own abodes. But, though I thought my 
time could be better employed, yet I consider such a line 
of work as having a distinct value of its own. I have, 
therefore, encouraged Dr. Lin to obtain as much private 
practice as he can without interfering with his set duties. 
During the year he has thus attended a large circle of the 
educated and influential with much success ; notably one 
gentleman, whose interest in our work on its philanthropic 
side gives cause for true thankfulness. H. E. Yen-hsin-heu, 
a Taotai in rank, and one of the wealthiest men in Tien-tsin, 
now acting as chief director of the new Chinese Railway 
Company, has been for many years friendly and sympa- 
thetic. He was cured of chronic dysentery while under our 
treatment, and was a subscriber to the original building 
fund of the hospital, and later on to the extension fund. 
Last summer, after a trying overland journey, he was 
taken seriously ill with an acute affection of the heart 
and other complications. Ke was so dangerously ill that 
there seemed small hopes of his recovery ; however, Dr. 
Lin visited him twice a day, paying the most assiduous 
attention to his treatment, while I saw him at intervals, 
and after many weeks of anxiety he was mercifully restored 
to perfect health. A man of great influence in the city, 
and justly popular, he was besieged during his severe 
illness by many friends, who besought him to stop taking 
foreign medicine, which might do well enough for foreign 
constitutions, but could not be expected to suit the more 
intricate anatomy of the Chinaman. However, the whole 
gravity of the case, together with the nature of the lesion 



352 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

and the object of the treatment, had been fully explained 
to him — a questionably wise proceeding in ordinary 
instances, but rendered necessary by the circumstances. 
Mr. Yen, however, in spite of the opposition of his many 
friends, preferred to trust himself in the hands of Dr. Lin, 
and, happily, his trust was not misdirected. I should say, 
by way of explanation, that in Tien-tsin, while Western 
surgery is acknowledged as superior to Chinese, the same 
does not hold good of the treatment of internal maladies. 
One of the most earnest in entreating Mr. Yen to abandon 
foreign physic was the present magistrate of the city, Mr. 
Kung ; yet when the patient recovered, Dr. Lin received 
a request to come and treat this magistrate's wife. Mr. 
Yen's gratitude was very real. He not only presented two 
commendatory tablets to be suspended outside the hospital, 
— the ordinary method adopted by grateful patients, — but 
he inserted, in the Chinese edition of the Times newspaper, 
a paragraph expressing his indebtedness to Western medi- 
cine, and urging more of his countrymen to avail themselves 
of it. He also memorialized the Viceroy to the same effect, 
thanking him, as the patron of the hospital, for the benefits 
he had received ; and within these last few days he has 
appointed one of our old students to the post of medical 
officer to the China Railway Company. 

•' The Medical School. — In December 1881 this small 
school was started as an experiment. It was, and is, a 
Government school, excepting that the foreign teachers are 
medical missionaries. The idea of the scheme from the 
Government point of view was to provide a few foreign 
trained medical officers of the army and navy at a minimum 
cost. The idea of the scheme from the missionary point 
of view was to influence a band of educated young men 
for Christ. It was hoped that it would be the beginning 
of a much-needed medical college, with an efficient teaching 
staff, and thoroughly furnished in all its branches. No 
such institution exists in China, though an attempt is this 



LAST THINGS. 353 



year being made in Hong Kong to found one under British 
auspices. Our hopes as to the growth of the school have 
not been realized, and we are compelled to acknowledge 
that, so far as the Chinese are concerned, we are ahead of 
the times. Chiefly due to the opposition shown by the 
officers in the army and navy to the innovation of foreign 
trained medical men, the interest in the growth of the 
school has largely ceased. Several of the late students 
have left the services dissatisfied with the treatment they 
were receiving, and the present ones are naturally greatly 
disheartened at the prospect awaiting them when they, too, 
a few months hence, will finish their course. The work 
of medical teaching is very onerous, and, although the 
authorities seem prepared to continue the school on its old 
footing, it appears to us wiser to add no more new students 
while the outlook for them is so poor. 

" We cannot say that the experiment has failed, for from 
the Government standpoint they will have available, when 
the present class has got through, nineteen men who have 
undergone a three years' course in medicine upon the 
Western model, have studied Western text-books, and have 
been examined by Western practitioners. Nor from the 
missionary standpoint can the experiment be declared a 
failure. Sunday after Sunday, not to speak of the indirect 
influences during the week, the students have been under 
careful religious instruction, and we have had the joy or 
seeing several of them come out on the Lord's side. Let 
me mention an incident which greatly cheered my heart. 
The subject in our Bible class was the transfiguration on 
the mount. K. began the conversation by remarking, 
' The three disciples saw the Lord in His glory, and we 
have now the like privilege. Last week,' said he, ' while 
1 was reading and thinking over this lesson, I had a sort ot 
vision. I saw Jesus as I had never seen Him before. I 
saw Him in His glory, and it made my heart so glad.' The 
young fellow gave this testimony before the class, evidently 

23 



354 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

moved by the Spirit of God, for the Lord's presence was 
very manifest just then in our midst. 

"Mr. King told me only yesterday an incident which 
may be worth recording. A friend spoke to him of a 
conversation he had had with Captain von Hanneken, a 
German officer in the Chinese service, who has had military 
command for nine years at Port Arthur, a fortified station 
at the mouth of the Gulf of Pechili. Dr. Chow, an old 
student, was in medical charge of the military hospital at 
the station, which was under the oversight of Captain von 
Hanneken. Speaking of Dr. Chow, who has since left the 
service and taken up a business appointment, the captain 
said that he had been badly treated by the Chinese officials 
at Port Arthur, though he himself had been greatly pleased 
with the young doctor. ' He did his work faithfully and 
well, and the only fault I had to find with him was that 
he read his Bible too much, and did not take sufficient 
exercise.' 

" Spiritual Results in the Hospital. — In past years we have 
had cause to thank God for sending many material blessings; 
but, however stimulating to our faith these gifts may be 
when sent in answer to prayer, they only lead us the more 
hungrily to desire those spiritual blessings, the effect of 
which will reach on into eternity. If last year was a good 
one in this latter respect — and we believe it was — this year 
has been a better. It may be safely said that there is a 
perceptible growth manifest in the spiritual life of our 
helpers. This is an omen of good things to come. 

" In dealing with our patients we have aimed not only 
at the healing of their bodies, but at the salvation of their 
souls. Very many, thank God, have been attracted by the 
story of redemption, and not a tew have thrown in their 
lot with us. Let me give a few instances : — 

" Chang-te-Chun, aged thirty, a soldier. He was in 
hospital over two years ago undergoing a severe surgical 
operation. He made a good recovery, and during his con-- 



LAST THINGS. 355 



valescence became much interested in the gospel. Mani- 
festing evidences of conversion, he was baptized in Tien-tsin 
before his departure to his camp at Lu-tai, some two hundred 
odd li from here. He has paid us visits off and on as oppor- 
tunity allowed, and has ever showed a warm love for the 
Saviour and a desire to propagate the gospel. On one 
occasion he brought a subscription to be devoted to the 
help of poor patients. In the hospital gatehouse during 
another visit he met a Bible colporteur, whom he invited 
to visit Lu-tai. The colporteur accepted the invitation, and 
our soldier-friend gave him a hearty welcome. He intro- 
duced him amongst his acquaintances, bore witness to the 
truth, and in the public street urged the people to buy the 
Scriptures and turn to the Saviour. His aggressive Chris- 
tianity brought upon him so much persecution in the camp, 
where the men are generally the ruffians and ne'er-do-weels 
who have found their own neighbourhoods too hot for 
them, that after having received a severe beating from his 
comrades he decided to leave the army. In China, in time 
of peace, no difficulty is thrown in the way of a soldier 
leaving his regiment, as there are always more applicants 
for enlistment than can be accepted, and his training 
hitherto has not tended to make him a specially valuable 
article in the market. Though Chang-te-Chun left the 
army, he did not leave Lu-tai ; but being a man of many 
expedients, and having saved some money, he opened a 
general shop in the town, and has since prospered. He 
continues as zealous as* ever, and is a witness for Christ 
in his district. The Rev. Mr. Walker, of the American 
Methodist Episcopal Mission, Tien-tsin, during a tour last - 
year, visited Lu-tai with the colporteur above referred to, 
and remained a day or two preaching in the place. He 
told me he met two Christians there, both of whom had 
been old patients, and he especially spoke in warm terms 
of the earnestness of Mr. Chang, and of the help he had 
received from him. Mr. Chang brought two men, who had 



356 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

been instructed by him, and who were hopeful inquirers, 
to see Mr. Walker. 

" It is very difficult in China for a man to be a Christian 
and a soldier at the same time. Quite apart from the 
character of his comrades, he has to face the observance of 
idolatrous practices. Two or three times every year the 
' cannon ' are brought out for worship, offerings are pre- 
sented, incense is burnt, and officers in turn prostrate 
themselves before the guns. 

" What has been said of soldiers applies with still greater 
force to officers, whether civil or military. A blue-buttoned 
military mandarin, who was an in-patient, showed much 
interest in the gospel, and appeared to realize in some 
measure his need of a Saviour, but the consequences staring 
him in the face if he became a Christian were such that he 
shrank back. ' It would mean ruin to all my prospects,' 
said he, ' and I should have no rice to eat.' 

"So with civil officials it practically means forsaking 
office to become a Christian. Two men of this class during 
the year were so far hopeful that they examined into the 
truth with apparently open minds, and in each case were 
considerably influenced. One was a Chow magistrate, and 
the other a grain official, both scholarly men, but the 
difficulty felt by each was, 'I cannot be a Christian and 
continue to hold my office.' Social ruin they thought would 
be the consequence, and they were not prepared to forsake 
all and follow Christ. 

" Lin-tsung-iin, aged thirty-six, is a Nankin man, and the 
son of a sub-prefect. Though his rank is military, he has 
a good education and belongs to a good family. Such a 
combination is by no means common. Presumably for 
this reason he is not attached to the army, but is employed 
on the Viceroy's staff to fill special service appointments. 
Mr. Lin was an in-patient in the fourth month of the year, 
suffering from an affection of the elbow joint, which rendered 
his left arm useless. He made a complete recovery, with 



LAST THINGS. 357 



a useful arm. While with us he read the Scriptures and 
other books, and took a pleasure in conversing about 
Christianity. He had less pride than most men of his 
class, and was altogether a very lovable man. When he 
left, like so many more, he was undecided, and we could 
only leave him to God, not knowing what the result would 
be. However, he continued to attend Sunday services, 
and, having become an applicant for baptism, he was re- 
ceived in the tenth month. His friends proved his greatest 
hindrance, and for a time kept him back. Living in good 
style, and being an amiable man, he naturally had many 
friends. Some of them belonged to the order styled in 
China ' Chiu jou peng yu,' which means literally ' wine and 
meat friends.' In this country such men are veritable 
leeches, and Mr. Lin found it no easy task to shake them 
oft. The early morning would find them in his guest room, 
and when he went abroad they would be at hand ready to 
escort him. Before his baptism he several times started 
to service or to visit us, but with his 'friends' dogging his 
steps he was ashamed to come. Then they began to 
insinuate that he was going over to the foreigner. To 
become a Christian is, with the wealthy Chinese, equivalent 
to becoming a Kuritzu nu, — i.e., a devil's slave — devil being 
the polite designation applied to the foreigner by the 
Chinese in their own homes. It was his good old mother 
— all honour to the old lady — who at last came to the 
rescue, and gave the so-called friends a thorough rating, 
declaring that her son was doing no disgraceful act in 
joining the foreign religion. From this time he took a 
more decided stand. He threw away his ancestral tablet, 
and cleared all trace of idolatry from his house. His old 
mother, over sixty years of age, who reads well, is much 
interested in the gospel, having been instructed by her 
son, and having studied the New Testament for herself. A 
manservant in his employ is also under instruction. 

" Keng-lien-Chen, aged thirty, pedlar. He was converted 



35$ JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

when in the hospital two years ago. He carried on his 
calling for some time in Tien-tsin, and was received into the 
Church. Needing a hospital coolie, and wishing to have a 
Christian man, about seven months since we engaged the 
pedlar. He gave great satisfaction, as he devoted nearly 
all his spare time to teaching the patients what he himself 
knew ; and as he had a good knowledge of characters, and 
was well acquainted with his New Testament, he was a 
great help. About a month ago he asked permission to 
leave, as he felt it on his conscience to return to his home 
at Lading, some three hundred li from Tien-tsin, and preach 
the gospel to his relations and neighbours. ' Go, by all 
means,' said I, for I much wish that more of the Christians 
had it in their hearts to go and tell others what God has 
done for their souls. I trust he may be sustained and blest 
in his mission. 

"We have had the privilege ot seeing what comfort 
Christianity brings during the last moments of life, in two 
cases dying in hospital within the year. One had served 
the Lord for some years in the capacity of native preacher 
in the American Methodist Episcopal Mission. He became 
an in-patient for acute inflammation of the bowels, which led 
to the formation of an abscess, and the cutting short of his 
promising career at the age of thirty-nine. Mr. Wang-chih- 
ho always had a bright and happy smile to greet one upon 
entering his ward, and you felt, while conversing with him, 
that Christianity did indeed mean to him faith in a living 
Christ. The day before he died, though there were no 
special symptoms to denote that the end was coming, he 
himself realized that death was close at hand; yet, with 
this presentiment, God graciously sent calmness and peace 
of heart. On this day, after one of the dispensers had 
been speaking as usual to the patients in his ward, Mr. 
Wang addressed them, and spoke of his expectation ot 
death and of the certain hope he had of life eternal in 
Christ Jesus. His words were accompanied with spiritual 



LAST THINGS. 359 



power, and, while speaker and listener wept together, 
those who were able knelt upon the floor while the dying 
believer prayed for God's blessing upon them. 

" Another case was that of Wang-san, aged twenty-eight, 
who entered the hospital in 1886, suffering from chronic 
disease of the knee-joint, which totally disabled him. As a 
last resource, excision of the knee-joint was performed under 
antiseptic precautions, and he was able to get about again. 
But his constitution had been shattered by his long illness, 
and he died in the hospital eight months after the operation 
was performed. Upon his first coming under our care 
he was very callous and indifferent to everything but his 
sickness; this condition lasted for about a month, during 
which time it seemed well-nigh hopeless to move his heart, 
but he awoke at last to a sense of his sinfulness and need 
of a Saviour. When he got about again, after the operation, 
he was baptized, and proved himself a simple-minded, 
warm-hearted Christian. Not knowing a character when 
he first came in, he could, at the time of his death, read his 
New Testament fairly well, which speaks highly for his 
interest and perseverance. At ten o'clock at night, four 
hours before his death, I sat on the side of his kang; he 
was evidently sinking, yet his mind was quite clear, and 
we talked together of the life beyond the grave. He was 
quite restful and happy — his was a simple faith, but oh, you 
could not doubt its potency as you saw his face lit up with 
the radiance of hope. After prayer together I wished him 
good-bye, not expecting he would live until morning. His 
last words to me were, ' Doctor, I shall be waiting for you in 
heaven ; I am going on before.' This man, a year previously, 
had been dark and dead in heathenism, now he was a new 
creature in Christ Jesus. As I went to my room I thought 
to myself, ( Oh, this is indeed worth coming to China for ! ' " 

The Doctor's last letter to his father is dated March 
20th, less than a fortnight before his death 



■ 



360 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

" I hope you are all keeping well," he writes. 
" Alec tells me you are getting on nicely in the 
trying January weather. 

" Now business life has come back to Tien-tsin 
with the opening of the river and the arrival of the 
steamers. The opening up of the inland rivers also 
increases my work, as a large number of country 
people, who were not able to travel in the winter by 
road, now come long distances very cheaply by boat. 

" These cases are chiefly surgical ones of long 
standing coming in for operation. We have a large 
number of in-patients just now, and they are, quite 
a lot of them, interested in the gospel and studying 
their Bibles and catechisms. You would be in- 
terested in the sight going on in the wards nearly 
every afternoon — little groups of patients gathered 
round one or two beds, and one of the hospital 
helpers busy teaching them. 

"Would that God would pour down a very great 
blessing on the hospital this year. There is certainly 
no such field for evangelistic work as the wards of an 
hospital in a land like China, where it is well-nigh 
impossible to come in touch with the people. 

"It is very wonderful to see how step by step God 
has opened up this work, and is now using it to 
spread into all the districts around the precious 
word of salvation. 

" Dr. Roberts has gone to join Gilmour in Mongolia, 
and the Macfarlanes are in the country, with Mr. Rees, 
arranging their new home. I am therefore all alone." 



LAST THINGS. 361 



During the days that followed the writing of these 
letters Dr. Mackenzie's time was even more fully 
occupied than usual, for of him it might be truly said 
that he died in harness. Sickness was very prevalent 
throughout the settlement of Tien-tsin, and the only 
medical man then residing in the place had been 
summoned to Taku, at the mouth of the river, to 
attend some patients who were seriously ill with 
small pox. As was his custom, Dr. Irwin had left 
his practice in Dr. Mackenzie's hands, so that he had 
a time of exceptionally hard work. It is possible 
that from this cause he may have been predisposed 
to sickness, but was apparently in perfect health 
when, on Saturday afternoon, he attended as usual 
the weekly meeting of the Chinese and foreign 
workers connected with the Mission, for prayer and 
consultation. 

He afterwards took a walk over the plain with 
Mr. King. The weather had been unseasonably warm 
during the week, and consequently heavy winter 
clothing had been pretty generally laid aside. One of 
the cold bleak winds for which our northern springs 
are distinguished suddenly came up, and Dr. Mac- 
kenzie, having neglected to take with him his over- 
coat, took a severe chill. On the next day, though 
evidently suffering from cold, he attended as usual 
both Chinese and English services. He had arranged 
to dine with one of the Mission families, and had the 
pleasure of meeting with his friends Mr. and Mrs. 
Pigott, of the China Inland Mission, who had just 



362 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

returned to China after furlough, and were passing 
through Tien-tsin to their station in the interior. 

How little we thought it was the last Sabbath he 
would spend on earth. He talked cheerfully and 
brightly of the medical work, when questioned by 
Mr. Pigott. In reply to enquiries made, with some 
surprise, as to his intention of closing the medical 
school when the students then in the classes had 
graduated, he replied, that after much thought and 
prayer about the matter, he felt convinced it was the 
right thing to do, since the need for such trained 
medical men was not yet felt in China, except 
spasmodically, in times of special emergency, when 
rumours of war were abroad. 

" Will you, then, refuse students if they are sent to 
you by the Viceroy ? " enquired his friend. 

" His Excellency is not likely to send me any, 
unless I make the request," he replied. 

Being further pressed as to how he would make 
his decision known to the Viceroy, he explained, " I 
have never troubled myself about the future ; that is 
in God's hands ; He will make all clear when the time 
comes." 

Some conversation was also carried on about the 
Anti-Vivisection Society in England, with some ardent 
members of which his friends had met while at home. 

Dr. Mackenzie considered that it was possible to 
push this matter too far, and related how a lady at 
home had refused to shake hands with him, because 
he could not conscientiously say that he believed 



LAST THINGS. 363 



vivisection of every kind and under any circumstances 
was to be condemned. 

After conducting his afternoon Bible class, he 
attended the English service, and then took supper 
with his old friends Mr. and Mrs. Innocent, of the 
Methodist New Connexion Mission. They thought 
him feverish and far from well, but no serious illness 
was anticipated. 

The fever increased, but after a restless night the 
Doctor rose, and went to the dispensary as usual. His 
strength was, however, not equal to his desire to work, 
and he was compelled to leave the place where he 
had laboured so nobly and successfully, for the last 
time, and go back to his bedchamber. At five 
o'clock on Monday afternoon, the hour of our weekly 
prayer-meeting, two of the members of the Mission 
were absent. Just at the close Mr. Bryson came in 
and informed us of the Doctor's serious illness. On 
his way from the city he had been met by one of 
the dispensers, who had told him that Dr. Mackenzie 
was very ill, and the fever rising. Upon going up to 
his room Dr. Mackenzie remarked to his colleague, 
" I am afraid this is going to be something rather 
serious, I have never felt anything like it before." 

He was asked if he would like to have Dr. Irwin 
called in, and upon giving his assent, that gentleman 
was at once summoned. 

Both doctors were agreed in fearing the disease 
threatened might be small pox, as Dr. Mackenzie had 
been attending patients suffering from that epidemic. 



364 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

When we heard this sad news, before the prayer- 
meeting broke up we all joined in earnest supplica- 
tion, that if it were the Lord's will the disease might 
be rebuked, and our dear friend's valuable life 
spared. 

The next two days there seemed little change in 
the patient's condition. Mr. and Mrs. King kindly 
acted as nurses, with the help of some of the Doctor's 
students, and to guard against risk of contagion every 
one else was, by the Doctor's orders, excluded from the 
room. 

From that time Dr. Mackenzie seemed to entertain 
no thoughts of recovery. Dr. Irwin was anxious 
about this impression, and constantly reminded his 
patient that they had both attended more serious 
cases where recovery had supervened. 

Frequent interviews and excitement were forbidden 
by the doctor in attendance, but Dr. Mackenzie's two 
senior colleagues kept watch for several nights in the 
room below his bedchamber. 

On Good Friday morning Mr. Lees was allowed 
to see his sick friend, and he at once asked him to 
pray with him. Allusion being made in the prayer 
to the sacred memories of the day, the Doctor enquired, 
" Is this Good Friday then ? " and seemed from the 
expression of his face to derive pleasure from the 
fact, as if in some way it brought him nearer to his 
Lord. Our " beloved physician " had heard the call 
which summoned him to rest from his labours, and 
when another colleague entered the room he ex- 



LAST THINGS. 365 



claimed, " I think the Lord is calling me to Himself. 
What a joy it will be to go to Him ! What a mercy 
to be prepared to go." 

Another pathetic incident of that morning was 
Dr. Mackenzie's parting with one of the ablest of his 
staff, a man of high character and attainments, who 
has long been a Christian man, but whose lukewarm- 
ness has lately given us cause for anxiety. Fixing 
his eyes upon him, he said with great solemnity : — 

" Ah, sir, when it comes to this there is no peace, 
no rest, for a man but in Jesus ! Don't let the world 
get hold of you. Don't let anxiety to please your 
worldly friends, and the cares and honours of the 
world, drive you away from Jesus. I am afraid for 
you." And then, as, speechless with grief, the man 
turned to go, he held out his hand, and on his Chinese 
friend taking it in sign of farewell, he added, " Whether 
we shall meet again or not is for you to decide." 

It was on the afternoon of this day that Dr. Irwin 
first expressed fears as to the issue, and about one 
o'clock on Saturday morning Dr. Mackenzie sent 
for Mr. Lees to speak to him about his will and 
receive parting messages for friends. He was then 
in great pain, but it was characteristic of him that 
his sole anxiety was that everything should be clearly 
explained, so as to save trouble when he was gone. 

The night was one of great distress, owing to in- 
creased difficulty of breathing, and in the morning, 
when Mr. Lees saw him again, he said, — 

" Oh, I have had such a dreadful night. I cannot 



366 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

bear this much longer. Do pray the Lord to call 
me away soon." 

A little later he said, " I felt a presentiment on 
Monday when I became ill. One does not usually 
lay any stress on presentiments, but I had the feeling 
that this would be my last illness." 

" I hope not," replied his colleague. " I trust that 
God will spare you to us for many years yet. We 
want you, and the Lord's work wants you." 

" Oh, it is all right," replied the Doctor. " I am 
quite ready to go." 

Some relief was experienced towards the afternoon 
of Saturday ; the breathing seemed easier, and though 
the inflammation had not begun to subside, it was 
understood that the right lung was still not affected. 
It was arranged that Mrs. Lees should watch over 
the patient during the night, in company with two 
of the Doctor's attached medical students. 

We all retired to rest with the strain of intense 
anxiety somewhat relieved, and were daring to hope 
that the crisis had passed, and that the morning 
might see some marked improvement in our dear 
friend's condition. 

Towards midnight Dr. Irwin left him, feeling more 
encouraged about the case. 

Dr. Mackenzie seemed easier and inclined for 
conversation, but Mrs. Lees rather discouraged this, 
fearing the least excitement might produce unfavour- 
able symptoms. He enquired what Dr. Irwin thought 
of his condition, and Mrs. Lees replied that he con- 



LAST THINGS. 367 



sidered there was a slight change for the better, and 
that we hoped God was going to spare him to us 
to do some more work for the Master. 

" You would like that, would you not ? " she 
enquired. 

" Yes," he said ; " I am quite ready, whichever way 
it is. I only want the Lord's will to be done. It 
would be nice to stay and do a little more work, if 
that is His will." 

Then, at a suggestion from Mrs. Lees that he 
had better try and get a little sleep, he turned over 
on his side, remarking, " Oh, this is so restful ; I feel 
as if I could sleep so well for such a long time." 

For some time he seemed to be peacefully sleeping, 
till suddenly, about twenty minutes to four, the heavy 
breathing suddenly stopped. One of the students, 
who had been watching outside the door, instantly 
noticed the change, and, coming in, at once felt his 
pulse, and discovered that thus silently and peacefully 
he had gone to be for ever with the Lord. 

There seemed to be something specially beautiful 
in the time of his release. " Very early in the morning, 
while it was yet dark," on Easter Day, " God's finger 
touched him, and he slept ; " and with the news of the 
great sorrow which had fallen upon us as a Mission, 
came thoughts of all that the glorious Resurrection 
morning signifies to sorrowing hearts down all the 
ages. 

But the loss was felt to be indeed a heavy one 
both by Chinese and foreigners. Seldom, perhaps, 



368 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

has any one been called away from one of our 
Eastern communities whose death has been so 
universally mourned, as his who might well be 
called " the beloved physician." 

Throughout the native city, from the home of 
the Viceroy to the humble abode of many a poor 
coolie, to whom the skilful hand, now cold in death, 
had brought relief and healing, the news that one so 
honoured and beloved had passed away was received 
with dismay and heartfelt sorrow. " He was indeed 
a good man and a skilful ; " " There will never be such 
another physician ! " " How can the sick be healed 
now?" — such were a few of the expressions that 
might be heard falling from Chinese lips as the sad 
news that "Ma Tai-fu " was dead spread through the 
city. And not among the Chinese alone, but in 
many a foreign home, where in times of sickness 
life and health had been restored by his skill, and 
hope rekindled by the confidence his presence in- 
spired in every patient's heart, there also his loss 
was mourned as no common sorrow. 

The funeral took place on the afternoon of the 
day following his death, only a week from the 
commencement of his illness. 

It was a lovely afternoon, the air balmy and 
warm, and fragrant with the breath of peach 
blossoms, — a great contrast to the bleak dust storms 
and leaden skies of the day on which the beloved 
departed lay dying. 

Very striking was the wonderful burst of spon- 



LAST THINGS. 369 



taneous feeling which affected our cosmopolitan 
community, and brought men of every nationality 
in unprecedented numbers to show their respect 
by attendance at the funeral. Large crowds of 
Chinese, whose special friend he was, thronged the 
road to the cemetery, in many cases evidently 
mourning the loss of one to whom they had been 
sincerely attached. 

" I never thought Chinamen could be so affected," 
remarked one, who saw the marks of deep and 
heart-felt sorrow on many a Chinese face, as they 
stood by Dr. Mackenzie's open grave. " 

Borne by Chinese dispensers and Christians, the 
coffin was carried from the Doctor's home to the 
little English church not far distant. It was almost 
covered by beautiful wreaths and garlands of choice 
flowers from the greenhouses of English, German, 
and Russian friends, mingled with the humbler floral 
offerings of many others who had known and loved 
him. Among these last gifts of love glittered the 
Star and Ribbon of the Double Dragon, conferred 
Upon Dr. Mackenzie by the Emperor a few years 
previously. 

The coffin was borne up the aisle of the little 
church past crowds of mourners of all nationalities, 
conspicuous among them being two high officers, 
deputed by Lady Li and the Viceroy to represent 
them. 

Suddenly the beautiful strains of the " Christian's 
Good-night " were raised ; a sweet expression of the 

24 



37o JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

comfort which comes to the mourners of those who 
have fallen asleep in Jesus. 

" Sleep on, beloved, sleep and take thy rest, 
Lay down thy head upon thy Saviour's breast ; 
We love thee well, but Jesus loves thee best. 

Good-night. 

" Until the shadows from this earth are cast, 
Until He gathers in His sheaves at last, 
Until the twilight gloom is overpast, 

Good-night. 

" Until the Easter glory lights the skies, 
Until the dead in Jesus shall arise, 
And He shall come, but not in lowly guise, 

Good-night. 

*' Only 'Good-night,' beloved, not ' Farewell; * 
A little while, and all His saints shall dwell 
In hallowed union indivisible. 

Good-night. 

" Until we meet again before the Throne, 
Clothed in the spotless robe He gives His own, 
Until we know even as we are known, 

Good-night.' ' 

The short service in the church was conducted by 
the Rev. J. Innocent, of the English Methodist New 
Connexion Mission. 

The coffin was borne from thence to the end of 
the road leading to the cemetery by twelve friends, 
including gentlemen of the foreign community and 
the representatives of seven missions, some of whom, 
it happened, at that time were passing through Tien- 
tsin on their way to interior stations. 



LAST THINGS. 371 



From the end of the cemetery road to the grave 
the bearers were twelve of Dr. Mackenzie's medical 
students, who, at their own special request, were 
allowed the privilege of rendering this last service to 
their departed teacher. 

An impressive service was conducted at the grave- 
side by the Rev. J. Lees, the senior representative 
of the London Mission in Tien-tsin, a portion of it 
being in Chinese for the benefit of the large concourse 
of native Christians who attended. Then the well- 
known strains of the hymn " Rock of Ages " were 
raised, sounding familiar even in its Chinese garb, 
and bringing back to many a heart touching memories 
of sacred services in the homeland so far away, the 
land to which the day before the sad and startling 
tidings of their heavy loss had been flashed to the 
aged father, the widow, and little child. A shadow 
seemed to have fallen over the lives of not a few, 
as we turned away from Dn Mackenzie's early 
grave. 

Could it be true that he, little more than a week 
ago so full of life and vigour, was now numbered 
with the dead, having been called away from the 
work for which he seemed so peculiarly fitted ? How 
was it that he had been called to rest from his 
labours, when the Master's injunction that we should 
pray for more labourers to be sent into His harvest- 
field seemed more incumbent upon us than ever 
before ? 

That he had in truth been called to higher service 



372 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

was the thought of many a heart, while the question 
of Dean Alford, 

" Who knoweth if to live be but to die, 
And death be life?" 

echoed through our thoughts. 

There, in the quiet churchyard in the land of his 
adoption, among the people whom he loved and 
lived for, the tired body lies sleeping ; but we cannot 
but believe that the active soul has found a higher 
sphere of service in that land where it is said, " His 
servants shall serve Him." 

" The future world," writes General Gordon, " has 
been somehow painted to our minds as a place of 
continuous praise, and though we may not say it, 
we ^cannot help feeling that if thus it would prove 
monotonous. It cannot be thus. It must be a life 
of activity ; death is cessation of movement, life is all 
movement." 

" The tasks, the joys of earth, the same in heaven will be, 
Only the little brook has widened to a sea," 

sings Archbishop Trench, and our hearts are inclined 
to feel as if he may be more nearly right than we 
know. 

At any rate, we feel that the influence of such a life 
as Dr. Mackenzie's does not end when the grave 
covers him from our sight. 

Such men, it has well been said, " create an epidemic 
of nobleness ; " and though it is true that we can only 
gaze with profit upon God's saints in so far as they 



LAST THINGS. tf$ 



dimly reflect the image of their Saviour, we know 
well that " men do become wiser and greater by 
gazing at such examples, more ready to do and dare, 
more willing to lift their eyes out of the mire of 
selfishness and the dust of anxiety and toil, more 
brave to try whether they too cannot scale the 
toppling crags of duty and hold converse with these 
their loftier brethren upon 

1 the shining tablelands 
To which our God Himself is moon and sun.' " * 

And it was not merely an enthusiasm for humanity 
that touched Mackenzie's heart and made him willing 
to give up his life for the benefit of the millions of 
China. Men have done noble deeds under the 
stimulus of philanthropy, but a higher motive than 
this was the mainspring of his life, and that was 
a consuming love for his Divine Master. Like St. 
Paul, he was willing to become a fool for Christ's 
sake, and not a few men of the world so regarded 
him. For they saw that with many opportunities for 
enriching himself he accumulated no fortune ; that 
although he might have yielded to the temptations to 
vanity which recognised ability and success place in a 
man's way, he yet grew more humble with the passing 
years, while he curbed and mastered a naturally hasty 
temper till men wondered at his calmness. 

How striking was the testimony of a Chir.am m 
who had known him intimately for years. While the 

* Farrar. 



374 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 

Doctor lay dying this man remarked, " I believe in 
Dr. Mackenzie. He is a true man and a real follower 
of Christ. We talk of getting rid of our faults, and I 
suppose we all do try more or less earnestly to do so, 
but I have known very few men who have really 
much changed. Dr. Mackenzie has. Good as he was 
when I first knew him, he has become better ; he 
has become humble and patient, and has gained 
control over his temper. Yes, he has grown more like 
Jesus." 

The Doctor had made it a matter of special prayer 
that the year of which he only lived three short 
months should be a time of very special blessing 
to the hospital. It seemed a strange answer to this 
petition, that in so short a time he who had been the 
very mainspring of the work should have been removed 
from it. But God's ways are not as our ways, and 
His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. "He 
buries His workmen, but he carries on His work." 

A few short months after Dr. Mackenzie's death 
saw the hospital entirely stripped of all the temporal 
advantages and pecuniary help it had so long enjoyed, 
with the patronage of the Viceroy and high officials 
entirely withdrawn from it. 

The reserve fund, which with so much diligence 
and economy Dr. Mackenzie had accumulated through 
many years, and which he believed would be the 
means, not only of supporting the Tien-tsin medical 
work in the future, but also of supplying the funds 
for opening dispensaries and hospitals in needy 



LAST THINGS. 375 



districts throughout Northern China, was wrested 
from the Mission. The London Missionary Society 
was merely allowed the option of purchasing the 
buildings in which Dr. Mackenzie had for so many 
years carried on his noble and beneficent work. 
Meanwhile the Chinese authorities opened a Govern- 
ment Naval Hospital in close proximity to what 
had been known as the Viceroy's Hospital, but will 
henceforth bear the name of the London Mission. 

Yet all this failed materially to injure the work 
which had been founded and baptized in believing 
prayer. More than two years have passed since Dr. 
Mackenzie's death, and during that time the work has 
been carried on as successfully as before. God Him- 
self sent us a physician likeminded with Dr. Mackenzie. 
The sick attend at the dispensary in larger numbers 
even than before. The hospital wards have been well 
filled, while the spiritual blessings which in years past 
have distinguished the hospital as a nursery of the 
Church have still been vouchsafed to us by the Lord 
of the harvest. 

As to the pecuniary needs of the work, the Lord 
who gave and afterwards saw fit to take away the 
patronage of the rich and great Chinese officials, 
has been pleased to supply what has been needed 
from time to time, by putting it into the hearts of 
His people, both here and in the homeland, to con- 
tribute to the necessities of the work upon which 
His smile still rests. 

As to the further results of Dr. Mackenzie's 



&6 John Kenneth Mackenzie. 

labours in quarters in which, while still with us, he 
felt somewhat discouraged, the following extract from 
the present year's report of Dr. Roberts, who succeeded 
Dr. Mackenzie in the Tien-tsin medical work, shows 
that even here his earnest labours are bringing forth 
fruit as the years pass by. 

" You will be glad to know," he writes, " that the 
former labours of our lamented brother, Dr. Mackenzie, 
in connection with the Government medical school 
under his charge, have been far from fruitless. Up 
to the time of his death it seemed to him almost 
like labour in vain, seeing that the graduates were 
not succeeding in obtaining appointments. 

" It is very different now. In close proximity to our 
own hospital is an imposing building, the Viceroy's 
hospital, managed for the most part by three of Dr. 
Mackenzie's former students, and with the prospect, 
if well conducted, of doing much good in the healing 
of the sick. In Port Arthur there is a naval and 
military hospital and dispensary, which is much 
appreciated by the soldiers, and it is also worked by 
former students. Others again have been appointed 
to Wei Hai Wei, a naval station. Dr. Chang has 
been accepted many months ago for the post of 
house surgeon to the Alice Memorial Hospital, 
Hong-Kong ; while last, but not least, Dr. Mai has 
been for some time successfully treating the father 
of the Emperor in Peking." 



APPENDIX 



I. 

NORTH CHINA.— NEW HOSPITAL AT TIEN-TSIN. 

BY J. KENNETH MACKENZIE, M.R.C.S. 

The new hospital on the London Mission Compound, 
commenced in the autumn of 1879, is now completed, and 
was publicly opened on Thursday, December 2nd, by His 
Excellency Li Hung Chang, Viceroy of the Metropolitan 
Province, Imperial Grand Secretary, etc. The occasion 
was one of special interest, in that it elicited the hearty co- 
operation of both Chinese and foreigners. The hospital is 
built on the east side of the Taku Road, the main thorough- 
fare between the native city and the foreign concession 
and shipping. It is erected in the best style of Chinese 
architecture, and has an extremely picturesque and attrac- 
tive appearance. The front building, standing in its own 
courtyard, is raised six or seven feet above the level of 
the road, and is ascended by broad stone steps, which 
lead from the covered gateway to a verandah with its mas- 
sive wooden pillars running along its whole length. A hall 
divides the building into two portions. On the right side 
and in front is a spacious dispensary, which, thanks to the 
liberality of the Viceroy, is wanting in nothing, rivalling 
any English dispensary in the abundance and variety of the 
drugs, appliances, etc. ; behind this is a roomy drug store. 
On the left of the hall is a large waiting-room, with benches 
for the convenience of the patients, and used on Sundays 
and other days as a preaching hall. Behind and to one 



$8o APPENDIX. 



side is the usual Chinese reception-room ever to be found 
in a native building. Two other ante-rooms adjacent com- 
plete this block. The rooms are very lofty, without ceilings, 
leaving exposed the huge painted beams, many times larger 
than foreigners deem necessary, but the pride of the 
Chinese builder. Running off in two parallel wings at the 
back, each entirely detached and separated by courtyards, 
are the surgery and wards, the latter able to accommodate 
thirty-six in-patients. The wards to the right wing, four in 
number, are small, intended each to receive only three 
patients. Here we can isolate dangerous cases, and also 
receive persons, such as officials and others, who require 
greater privacy. In the left wing is the large ward, with 
accommodation for twenty-four patients, and beyond this a 
kitchen and other offices. The wards are all furnished 
with kangs, instead of beds, as is the custom in North China. 
These kangs are built with bricks, with flues running under- 
neath, so that in winter tfiey can be heated ; the bedding 
is spread upon a mat over the warm bricks. Plenty of room 
has been left for further extensions if found necessary. 

The opening ceremony was a very interesting one. The 
various rooms were gaily decorated with flowers, shrubs, 
flags, etc. Men from the English and Chinese gunboats 
helped Mr. Lees and Mr. King in the work of transforming 
the rooms from their normal bareness into a right gala 
appearance. While the place of honour was reserved for 
the Chinese dragon, the other national flags were attached 
together, and drawn from beam to beam, making ceilings of 
variegated colours for the principal rooms ; the walls were 
also draped with bunting. The waiting-room, where the 
ceremony was to take place, was arranged as a Chinese 
grand reception-hall ; everything in it was native, borrowed 
from the yamens. The floor was covered with camels'-hair 
carpets, brought from the temple for the occasion. The 
drug store, empty of drugs, and in its gala dress, was laid out 
with tables spread with refreshments, arranged by the ladies 



NEW HOSPITAL AT TIEN-TSIN. 381 

of the Mission. Every delicacy in the way of cakes, fruit, 
etc., was provided for the guests. The courtyard was matted 
in, and the whole place hung with handsome Chinese 
lanterns. 

By the appointed time all the Chinese and foreign guests 
had arrived, amongst them the three Taotais, the Prefect of 
the city, and numerous civil and military mandarins. Of 
the foreigners, the consular body was represented by the 
English, German, Russian, and American Consuls, officers 
from the ships of war, all the members of the missionary 
body, and many others. 

Upon the arrival of His Excellency an illuminated 
address in Chinese was read and presented. The Viceroy, 
upon receiving it, uttered many kindly words, showing his 
appreciation of, and sympathy with, the work already done 
— " while disclaiming any praise or merit as due to himself 
in the matter, he took the opportunity of publicly expressing 
his thanks to me and warm approbation of the zeal with 
which foreign medical skill has been so freely bestowed 
upon the people of Tien-tsin." 

Speeches were then made by Henry B. Bristow, Esq., 
H.B.M. Consul, and C. Waeber, Esq., Consul for Russia. 
Mr. Bristow spoke as follows : "It gives all foreigners the 
greatest pleasure to see His Excellency, the Grand Secretary, 
acting as patron of an institution like the one just opened. 
His Excellency has already gained great fame as a military 
commander, and it is to be hoped that in the future he 
would be also renowned for his encouragement of Western 
medical science. The reminiscences of military triumphs 
must always be embittered by the thoughts of friends killed, 
provinces devastated, crops destroyed, and all the evils 
which make war a curse to both victors and vanquished ; 
but the recollections associated with the establishment of 
benevolent institutions like the present brought to the mind 
only thoughts of pain assuaged and misery alleviated, and 
therefore he felt sure that His Excellency, when looking back 



382 APPENDIX. 



in years to come on his last achievements, would dwell with 
more unmixed pleasure on the establishment of institutions 
like the present than even on his military successes in the 
service of his country." 

Mr. C. Waeber, Russian Consul, also spoke, and said 
that " we have a proverb, ( in corpore sano mens sana/ 
which may be rendered in Chinese by * T'i wang tse shen 
ch'ing' — When the body is vigorous, then the mind is 
bright. In this new hospital we have a proof of His 
Excellency's great care for the welfare of his people, and 
it permits me to hope that His Excellency will take further 
steps for the development of this country by introducing 
Western art and science." Mr. Taotai Mah, Chief Secretary, 
replied for the Viceroy in French, stating again what His 
Excellency had already said in Chinese, and thanking all 
present for their interest in the good work. 

After the speaking had concluded, the native assistants 
were introduced to the Viceroy. The Viceroy, having 
formally opened the building, commenced a careful in- 
spection ; he examined many varieties of drugs, inquiring 
into their properties, etc. ; wanting to know if we had any 
remedies in common with the Chinese; whether most of 
our medicinal agents came from the organic or inorganic 
kingdoms; as to the cost of foreign drugs, and other 
queries too numerous to mention. But in the surgery the 
greatest amount of interest was excited ; the walls were 
hung with anatomical and physiological charts, kindly lent 
by Mrs. Williamson, of Chefoo ; on the operating-table and 
shelves were spread the valuable collection of surgical in- 
struments belonging to the hospital, with models of the 
human body and heart, lent by the Tien-tsin civil doctors. 
Everything in this department was new, even to those 
high officials, such as the Viceroy and Superintendent of 
Arsenals, to whom the latest inventions in electricity and 
mechanics are immediately sent. [It will probably surprise 
many to know that, although there is no railroad in China, 



NEW HOSPITAL AT TIEN-TSIN. 383 

His Excellency is better acquainted with the working of the 
steam-engine than most well-informed foreigners, having 
studied it intelligently from models.] Questions without 
number as to the uses, action, etc., of various instruments 
were put, and required all one's readiness of mind to 
give answers that would be easily comprehended. The 
size of the human brain in relation to the body, as shown 
in the wax model, drew special attention. The wards were 
afterwards examined, and the working of the hospital 
carefully inquired into. 

The Viceroy and the other guests then sat down to the 
refreshments already provided. It was evident, as each 
took his departure at the close, that a very pleasant 
afternoon had been spent. 

The Scheme Purely Chinese. — Medical mission hospitals 
in China have hitherto been mainly, if not altogether, 
supported by foreigners, the few occasional subscriptions 
obtained from the Chinese forming so small a proportion 
of the funds used in the carrying on of these various insti- 
tutions as to be practically of but little account. We have, 
therefore, had an unique experience in Tien-tsin, in that the 
hospital has been built entirely with Chinese subscriptions, 
and the working expenses obtained from the same source. 
We would humbly acknowledge the goodness of God in 
the entire matter. He, of a truth, has heard and answered 
prayer, and where the door seemed well-nigh closed He has 
opened wide its portals. On the Sunday following the 
opening, December 5th, a praise meeting was held in the 
large waiting-room of the hospital, attended by members of 
all the churches in Tien-tsin. Rev. J. Lees presided, and, 
after an opening address, called upon Rev. J. Innocent, 
New Connexion Methodist; Rev. W. L. Pilcher, American 
Episcopal Methodist Mission; Rev. H. Porter, M.D., Ameri 
can Board, and myself, who all spoke in words of praise 
and thanksgiving for what God had manifestly wrought. 
Much prayer was offered up that, as God had already given 



384 APPENDIX. 



so many temporal blessings, and drawn the people so near 
us, He would, in the days that are to come, pour down 
richly of those spiritual blessings for which our hearts are 
longing. 

The Medical Mission accounts stand roughly as follow : — 

Received from Viceroy for salaries of native helpers, 
purchase of surgical instruments, drugs, medical 
stores, and all expenses at temple dispensary and 
new hospital for fifteen months, ending November 
30th, 1880 Tls. 4,000 = ;£i,200. 

The above amount has been placed in the hands of W. 
W. Pethick, Esq., Secretary to His Excellency, and myself, 
who are jointly responsible for its use. The Viceroy has 
not been asked to contribute to the Building Fund. 

BUILDING FUND. 

Subscriptions to Building Fund from Chinese 

to December 27th, 1880 ... ... Tls. 3,820 = £1,146 

Sale of Medicines and Appliances to Chinese 500 = 



Tls. 4,320 -£1,296 



Amount paid to Builder 4,000 = 1,200 

Balance in hand 320= 96 

From Viceroy and general subscribers, the total amount 
received, entirely from native sources, tls. 8,320=^2,496 
during the sixteen months. 

The new hospital has already received over 200 in- 
patients, all of whom find their own food and clothing. 
Out-patients are still seen by me at the Memorial Temple 
four days a week. The register there shows the names of 
over 5,000 patients, with more than 20,000 visits. 



A MEDICAL REVIEW OF DR. MACKENZIE'S WORK. 385 

II. 

A MEDICAL REVIEW OF DR. MACKENZIE'S WORK. 

It has been thought that a few lines on the medical aspect 
©f the late Dr. Mackenzie's work might prove interesting to 
some of his medical friends, and also helpful to any who may 
be preparing for medical mission work in China. It is with 
this hope that we now record the leading facts, knowing well, 
however, that only an approximate idea can be thus gathered 
of the amount of suffering relieved and of the high profes- 
sional value of the work of our lamented colleague. 

Before referring to the various reports which Dr. Mac- 
kenzie published, and before the reader forms an opinion as 
to their value, it is necessary to bear in mind the numerous 
barriers to success which Dr. Mackenzie, in common with 
almost every medical missionary in China, had to contend 
with. These difficulties show us clearly the need of thorough 
preparation before coming to the Mission field. 

First we note the extremely chronic nature of many of the 
cases treated. The reason is not far to seek. Many diseases 
which are amenable to treatment based on a knowledge of 
the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the body, must 
necessarily, in a large measure, remain beyond the scope of 
the native physician, as he is practically ignorant of these 
sciences. 

In addition to this, we must add the great distrust and 
prejudice still existing in the native mind, though to a less 
extent than in former years, in consequence of which a 
Chinaman will often choose to endure months or even years 
of suffering rather than seek help from the foreign doctor. 

A very real hindrance often presents itself in the insani- 
tary hospital surroundings, and we are often powerless to 
improve matters. The hospital in Tien-tsin is an example 
of this, being surrounded by numerous graves and inundated 
plains, — a fruitful source of ague from time to time. In view 

25 



3^6 



APPENDIX. 



of these facts, we are not surprised at the need Mackenzie 
felt of thorough antiseptic precautions in order to success in 
operative surgery. 

By looking over the Doctor's Annual Reports we may 
learn much as to the nature of his work, the varieties of 
diseases treated, as well as their relative frequency. 

STATISTICS OF WORK IN HANKOW. 



Year. 


No. of Out-door 
Patients. 


No. of In-door 
Patients. 


No. of Operations.* 


1876 
1877 
1878 


3,128 

5.214 
11,859 


93 
406 

i,i37 


55 

75 

123 


Total 


20,201 


1,636 


253 



* Exclusive of opening abscesses and sinuses. 

STATISTICS OF THE RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF THE COMMONER 
DISEASES MET WITH AMONG THE OUT-DOOR PATIENTS. 



Year. 


Chronic 
Rheuma- 
tism. 


Scabies. 


Conjunc- 
tivitis. 


Eczema. 


Malarial 
Fever. 


Syphilis. 


Granl. 
Conjunc- 
tivitis. 


1876 
1877 


277 

5 6 4 


228 

595 


336 

422 


140 
166 


51 

170 


Ill 

108 


122 

46 


Totai 


841 


823 


758 


306 


221 


219 


168 



The 253 operations performed in Hankow may be taken 
as representative of the nature of the surgical work which 
falls to a medical missionary in his early years of service. 
We notice that operations on the eye for cataract, pterygium, 
entropion, and iridectomy, are more numerous than any 
others ; next come the excision of tumours, one of which 
weighed twenty-five pounds, and was successfully removed, 
the patient making a good recovery. Hare-lip cases were 



A MEDICAL REVIEW OF DR. MACKENZIE'S WORK. 387 



fairly numerous, but vesicle calculus was only met with 
four times; the lateral perineal operation was the one 
adopted for removal. We mention this latter fact as it 
presents a striking contrast to the great frequency of this 
disease in South China, particularly Canton and its 
neighbourhood. 

Reference has been made, in a previous part of the 
memoir, to several medical and surgical cases of general 
interest, and to the Doctor's mode of solving the boarding 
problem among in-door patients. It alone remains to refer 
to his opium refuge work, and the views he held concerning 
the opium smoking habit. 

We are all familiar with the difference of opinion held by 
medical men on this subject. Medical missionaries, some of 
whom speak from the personal observation of thousands of 
cases gathered from all grades of society, are unanimous in 
condemning the practice from a medical and moral stand- 
point, though at the same time they allow that in the case 
of the robust and well-to-do the physical harm may be slight 
compared with the degrading or at least hurtful moral 
effects on the victim of the pipe. 

On the other hand it is surprising to find some medical 
men stating that the habit is practically harmless. That they 
think so conscientiously we doubt not, though we are at a 
loss to understand how they arrive at their conclusions — 
conclusions so entirely opposite to those of a large majority 
of independent observers. 

During the Doctor's residence in Hankow we find he 
treated no fewer than 993 cases for opium smoking; all, 
except 25, were in-door patients. In the reports for 
1876-7 we find that "broken health" is one of the main 
reasons which the patients gave for wishing to relinquish 
the habit; while in the report for 1878 Dr. Mackenzie, 
writing of the difficulty in giving up the habit, sums up his 
experience of 993 cases in these words : " The habit of 
opium smoking, prolonged for any length of time, plays 



APPENDIX. 



havoc with the man's natural energy, rendering him indo- 
lent and enervated. Few in this condition can, unaided, 
combat the craving for opium and effectually reform. 
The attempt is often made, but as often ends in disappoint- 
ment. For a time they persevere, but when the intolerable 
craving, accompanied by extreme bodily depression, with 
violent achings of the joints and muscular pains, sets in, 
they fly to their old enemy, and drown themselves in 
opium stupor." The reference to this subject concludes 
with a typical illustration of the kind of case generally 
seeking admission into opium refuges. " A man of twenty- 
five, emaciated and feeble, ... a fortune-teller, with once 
a thriving business, who took to opium smoking, which led 
to disastrous results. His earnings were squandered and 
his health was broken down." The line of treatment 
adopted is concisely put in the report for 1878: "There 
is no medicinal specific guaranteed to cure ; the object 
aimed at is to relieve symptoms as they arise, and so to 
help the patient back to health and freedom." 

Passing on to review the pre-eminently successful labours 
of Mackenzie in Tien-tsin, we note, in the first place, a 
general similarity in the nature of medical and surgical 
cases met with in Hankow and Tien-tsin. We have not, 
however, sufficient data for drawing any reliable conclu- 
sions as to the comparative frequency of the various diseases 
treated in the two districts, and must accordingly content 
ourselves with calling attention — 

(1) To the out-door patients' statistics. 

(2) To the in-door patients' statistics. 

(3) To the statistics of operations performed. 

(1) Out- door Patients' Statistics. 

During the first five and a half months' work in the city, 
under the support of the Viceroy, Li Hung Chang, 3,174 
new cases were seen, 10,552 visits paid by them, and, in 



A MEDICAL REVIEW OF DR. MACKENZIE'S WORK. 389 

addition, 3,405 opium smokers received treatment as out- 
door patients. 

The report of this work yields the following interesting 
facts : — 

Diseases of Respiratory System . . . • 318 cases. 

„ Alimentary System ...» 314 „ 

„ Cutaneous System .... 248 „ 

„ Eye Diseases 216 „ 

„ Nervous System, etc., etc. . . 146 „ 

While of individual diseases we have the following 
figures : — 



157 


cases. 


129 


It 


106 


n 


IOI 


n 


91 


11 


86 


11 


68 


11 


65 


V 


59 


n 


58 


n 


45 


it 



Dyspepsia 

Chronic Rheumatism 

Asthma ........ 

Tinea Tonsurans ..... 1 

Bronchitis ........ 

Ulcers ....... 

Syphilis ........ 

Eczema ........ 

Dysentery 

Sciatica 

Intermittent Fever, etc., etc 

The results of Dr. Mackenzie's extensive efforts in Tien-tsin 
to treat opium-smokers successfully as out-door patients, 
by means of gradually diminishing doses of opium or its 
alkaloid, morphia, are highly instructive, especially since 
they were arrived at after ten and a half months' treatment 
of such cases, during which time he prescribed for no fewer 
than 5,106. 

We find he gave up the practice, being convinced that 
such a line of treatment was, in the vast majority of cases, 
powerless to effect a cure. By a cure we mean not only 
that the patient no longer smokes opium, but also that he 
no longer requires to take the opium-containing remedy. 

(2) In-door Patients' Statistics. 
This department of the work the Doctor long felt to be 



390 



APPENDIX. 



the most valuable and satisfactory. The average attendance 
of an out-patient was two to four days, which in many 
cases meant that the patient was unable or unwilling to 
give foreign medicine a more lengthy trial. On the other 
hand, the average stay of an in-door patient was about three 
weeks, implying more satisfactory treatment and better 
results in most cases, while in addition it gave the patient 
an opportunity of learning many of the vital truths of the 
Gospel and the possibility of spiritual as well as physical 
healing. 

The nature and extent of Dr. Mackenzie's work among 
his in-door patients may be gathered from the following 
statement of cases treated in one year. An examination of 
it reveals many interesting facts, e.g., the great preponder- 
ance of " eye cases," especially of entropion, leucoma, and 
granular conjunctivitis ; also of necrosis, fistula in ano, and 
dyspepsia. We also notice the large number of cures or 
improvements obtained, and the small number of deaths. 



STATEMENT OF CASES TREATED IN THE WARDS OF THE 
VICEROY'S HOSPITAL, T1EN-TSIN, FROM JANUARY 1ST TO 
DECEMBER 3 1 ST, 1 886. 



Diseases. 



General Diseases. 28 cases, 

Remittent Fever . 
Intermittent Fever 
Tertiary Syphilis 
Rheumatism, Subacute 
„ Chronic . 

Measles 

Diseases of the Nervous 
System. 34 cases. 

Epilepsy 
Spinal Neuralgia 
Hemiplegia . 
Paraplegia . 
Paralysis (local) 



Number 
Admitted. 



Cured or 
Relieved. 



Unrelieved. 



Died. 



A MEDICAL REVIEW OF DR. MACKENZIE'S WORK. 39 1 



Disease. 


Number 
Admitted. 


Cured or 
Relieved. 


Unrelieved. 


Died. 


Chorea 


2 


I 


j 




Tic Douloureux . 


I 




I 




Locomotor Ataxy . 


I 


I 






Sciatica . 


10 


10 






Diseases of the Circulatory 










System. 9 cases. 










Valvular Disease of Heart . 


5 


4 




I 


Subclavian Aneurism . 


1 




I 




Varicose Veins 


1 


1 






Arteritis (causing gangrene 










of foot) . 


2 


2 






Diseases of the Respiratory 










System. 38 cases. 










Bronchitis . 


17 


17 






Pneumonia . . 


4 


4 






Phthisis 


10 


10 






Pleurisy . . . 


4 


4 






Asthma, Spasmodic 


1 


1 






Laryngitis . 


1 


1 






Empyema 


1 






I 


Diseases of the Digestive 










System. 78 cases. 










Dyspepsia . 


27 


27 






Dysentery . 


9 


7 


2 




Abscess of Liver . 


1 


1 






Cancer of Stop ach . 


1 


1 






Gall Stone Colic . 


2 


2 






Hepatitis 


1 


1 






Peritonitis . 


1 


1 






Fistula in Ano . , 


26 


26 






Ascites .... 


2 


2 






Haemorrhoids 


8 


8 






Diseases of 'the Genito-Urinar 


y 








Organs. 26 cases. 










Spermatorrhoea . 


2 


2 






Phymosis 


7 


7 






Urethral Stricture 


7 


6 




I 


Orchitis . . , 


1 


1 






Nephritis . . . 


4 


3 




I 


Varicocele . 


1 


1 






Incontinence of Urine . 


1 


1 






Cystitis 


2 


2 






Calculus in Bladder 


1 


1 







392 



APPENDIX. 



Disease. 



Diseases of the Bones and 
Joints. 41 cases. 

Necrosis . 

Synovitis of Knee and 

Shoulder . 
Hip-joint Disease. 
Arthritis of Knee . 
„ „ Elbow 
Sprained Ankle . 
Anchylosis . 

Diseases of the Skin. 34 cases, 

Eczema . 

Psoriasis 

Carbuncle 

Rodent Ulcer and Lupus 

Ulcers .... 

Burns by Kerosene 

Gangrene (from frost bite) 

Diseases of the Eye. 164 cases 

Ectropion 

Entropion and Trichiasis 

Pterj'gium . 

Glaucoma 

Leucoma 

Closed Pupil after Iritis 

Cataract 

Conjunctivitis Catarrhal 
,, Granular 

,, Purulent 

„ Pustular 

Corneitis 

Ulcers of Cornea . 

Hypopion 

Ophthalmia Tarsi 

Retinitis 

Injuries. 29 cases. 

Fractures (i compound of 
thigh, I old ununited) 

Dislocations .... 

Gun-Shot Wounds 

Contused and Lacerated 
Wounds .... 

Cut Throat .... 



Number 


Cured or 


Admitted. 


Relieved. 


28 


28 


6 


6 


2 


2 


2 


I 


I 


I 


I 


I 


I 


1 


3 


3 


8 


8 


i 


i 


3 


2 


i5 


15 


3 


3 


2 


2 


57 


57 


ii 


ii 


13 


12 


21 


21 


8 


5 


12 


ii 


2 


2 


21 


21 


2 


2 


5 


5 


5 


5 


i 


i 


i 


i 


2 




4 


2 


4 


4 


6 


5 


14 


H 


i 


1 



Unrelieved 



Died. 



4 MEDICAL REVIEW OF DR. MACKENZIE'S WORK. 393 



Disease. 


Number 1 
Admitted. 


Cured or 
Relieved. 


Unrelieved. 


Died. 


Miscellaneous. 76 cases. 










Tumours, Simple . 


12 


12 






,, Malignant 


12 


12 






Nasal Polypi 


2 


2 






Abscesses (Perinephritic 2) 


16 


16 






Sinuses and Fistulae 


21 


21 






Hare-lip .... 


8 


8 






Unclassified .... 


5 


5 






Summary of In-patients. 






General Diseases ..... 


28 cases 




Nervous System 








34 ,1 




Circulatory System , 








9 n 




Respiratory System 








38 „ 




Digestive System . 








78 » 




Geni to- Urinary System 








26 „ 




Bones and Joints . 








41 n 




Skin 








33 » 




Eye 






. 1 


64 „ 




Injuries . 








29 „ 




Miscellaneous 








76 „ 




Total 






. 5 


56 





556 in-patients, each averaging 21 £ days' residence in hospital. 
Average number of patients in the wards during the year, 42. 
Seven deaths. 



(3) Statistics of Operations Performed. 

Nothing could be more suggestive as to the growth of 
the Tien-tsin medical mission work than a comparison of 
the number of operations performed during the first and 
last years of Dr. Mackenzie's career. During the first 
year, when he had no in-door accommodation and only a 
very limited staff of native assistants, the operations, 
though by no means few, were all of a minor nature, the 
larger number being for hare-lip, 23 ; for tumours, 20 ; 
for- pterygium, 14; and for entropion, 32. In striking 
contrast to this is the tabulated list given below of opera- 



394 APPENDIX. 



tions performed in 1886, some of which will be seen to 
have been of the most serious nature. 

These statistics speak loudly of Dr. Mackenzie s well- 
earned reputation, and of the implicit confidence placed in 
him by those who submitted themselves for treatment; 
while they also indicate the high state of development the 
work had attained to through the blessing of God, which 
so manifestly rested on the indefatigable labours of His 
servant. 

viceroy's hospital, tien-tsin. list of surgical operations 
performed from january 1st to december 3 1 st, 1 886. 

Total 589. 

Eye Operations. 212 cases. Cases 

Pterygium (excised or transplanted) • • • • 35 

Ectropion 2 

Entropion 94 

Iridectomy for Artificial Pupil 43 

„ „ Glaucoma ....... 16 

Cataract 17 

Strabismus 2 

Paracentesis Cornea 3 

Amputations. 24 cases. 

„ of Forearm . . . . . . . 3 

„ „ Thumb 2 

„ „ Fingers 5 

» ». Leg . 1 

I Pirogoffs . . 3 \ 
„ „ Foot 1 Syme's . . 1 V . . . 5 

( Chopart's . . I ) 

n » Toes 3 

,, „ Penis (for Epithelioma) .... 5 

Excisions of Knee Joint 2 

„ „ Portion of Rib I 

„ „ Metatarsal Bone of Foot .... 2 

Removal of Tumours 37 

„ „ Toe Nails 2 

», n Uvula 

„ „ Nasal Polypi 2 

Extraction of Bullet from Thigh 2 

Lithotomy (supra pubic operation) I 



A MEDICAL REVIEW OE DR. MACKENZIE'S WORK. 



;95 



Fistula in Ano 32 

Hare-lip .......... 8 

Haemorrhoids, External .5 

i Ligatured . 4 \ 

Clamp . . 1 > . . 6 
Nitric Acid . 1 ) 

Fissure of Anus ........ I 

Circumcision for Phymosis ...... 7 

Hydrocele tapped 5 

Varicocele (radical cure) ....... I 

Varicose Veins (radical cure) I 

Operations for Necrosed Bone . ; . . , 31 
Puncture of Bladder (supra pubic, for retention with 

bad stricture) ........ 5 

External Urethrotomy 3 

Naevus destroyed with Thermo-Cautery .... I 

Wiring Ununited Fracture ...... I 

Scraping Lupus and Rodent Ulcers 5 

Extraction of Needles and Splinters .... 3 

Operation for Paraphimosis I 

Splitting up Sinuses 27 

Breaking down Adhesions in Joints .... 4 
Abscesses opened (many antiseptically opened and 

drained, 2 Perinephritic) 77 

Abscess of Liver (antiseptically opened and drained) . I 
Operation for Carbuncle , , , , . , ,16 
Paracentesis Thoracis . . . . . . .16 

„ Abdominis ....... 30 

Dislocation reduced. 8 cases. 

Hip 2 

Shoulder ....... 3 

Elbow 2 

Thumb I 

Fractures treated. 8 cases. 

Clavicle . I 

Humerus . . . . . . . I 

Ulna I 

Femur 3 

Tibia and Fibula ... .1 

Fibula . . I 

Total . . 589 



S 9 6 APPENDIX. 



III. 
THE EVANGELISTIC SIDE OF A MEDICAL MISSION. 

BY J. KENNETH MACKENZIE, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. 

The medical missionary comes to China to advance the 
cause of Christ. This is fully admitted. But there is not 
the same unanimity of opinion as to how he can best 
advance his Saviour's cause. Many contend that his pro- 
vince is to confine himself to the healing of the sick, the 
training of medical students, and in the course of years, 
perhaps, adding to his multifarious duties the translation or 
preparation of medical works ; meanwhile, showing general 
sympathy in Christian effort, but leaving to his clerical col- 
leagues the work of evangelization. Others, again, think 
that he should personally take part in, if not superintend, 
the spiritual work amongst his patients — in fact, be at the 
head of the evangelists as well as the medical department 
of the Medical Mission. Such a view does not imply that 
he is not ready to welcome all the help he can get from his 
clerical brethren. The following remarks are written to 
advocate this latter opinion. There are two main objections 
generally brought forward against it. The first, that a jack- 
of-all-trades is a master of none, and that consequently you 
cannot have a good doctor and a good parson in the same 
individual. This is quite true. But I am not advocating 
the making of parsons ; indeed I would wish to see every 
medical missionary come out unordained, and it is not 
necessary that he should ever directly engage in preaching. 
To answer the other objection, viz., that he hasn't time, I 
would reply, that the old saying, " Where there's a will 
there's a way," holds good here. He must make time, for 
his business is only half done if he neglects this portion of 
it. How then can the evangelistic side of a Medical 
Mission best be developed ? 

The prevailing opinion seems to be in favour of establish- 



THE EVANGELISTIC SIDE OF A MEDICAL MISSION. 397 

ing in connection with every such mission, as soon as 
possible, a hospital with ward accommodation for in-patients. 
It is evident upon the surface that the best medical work 
can be achieved in this way, and there cannot be two 
opinions, where the experiment has been fairly tried, that 
the walls of an hospital give about the best opportunity to be 
found anywhere for direct personal dealing with men's souls. 
A statement one commonly hears made by clerical mis- 
sionaries is to the effect, that in chapel preaching to the 
heathen the difficulty is to get in touch with the people, to 
approach them as individuals. The preacher deals with 
his audience in the mass. We, in our hospital, on the 
other hand, can come into direct personal contact with men. 
Our relationship as doctor and patient removes at once the 
sense of separation, amounting oftentimes to actual hostility, 
shown by individual Chinese when approached by the 
foreigner. 

One of the best ways in which the medical missionary 
can influence his patients is by keeping up the spiritual 
life of his assistants, encouraging them to prayer and the 
frequent study of the Scriptures. Of course, he can only 
aid them as he is himself abiding in Christ, and drawing 
strength and life from his Saviour. He cannot give what 
he has not himself got. The knowledge of this should 
stimulate us to a constant and close walk with God. It is 
of little account for us to pray for the outpouring of the 
Holy Spirit upon our assistants or patients, until the great 
cry of our hearts is, " Lord, fill me ! " and then, when we 
are full, from us will go forth streams of living water to 
those around. Experience has taught me not to employ 
any men specially for religious work. The helpers should 
all be converted men, and they should carry the gospel 
to the patients under the supervision of the doctor. By 
helpers I mean dispensers who assist in the compounding 
of drugs, and ward attendants or dressers, who correspond, 
in the work they do, to our nurses at home. 



398 APPENDIX. 



I can best set forth my ideas on the subject by describ- 
ing our own practice. During the year 1886 there was an 
average of 42 in-patients daily in our wards, with an 
average length of residence for each of 2i| days. These 
patients pay for their own food and provide bedding, 
excepting in a few instances, such as severe accident 
cases. We employ two dispensers, three ward attendants, 
a cook, gatekeeper, coolie,— all but the last being working 
Christians. 

We begin the day with a Bible reading, at which the 
helpers and most of the convalescent patients are present. 
It usually lasts about three-quarters of an hour, and is 
made as conversational as possible by asking and soliciting 
questions, and inducing as many as are willing to take part. 
People enjoy a meeting much more when they have some 
part in it, however small. Above all things, the leader 
should avoid " preaching " if the meeting is to be interesting 
and profitable. 

Most of our medical work in the wards is done before 
two o'clock, so that the ward attendants are able to spend 
a large portion of every day in teaching the catechism to 
those patients who are both well enough and willing to 
receive instruction. With a little management and en- 
couragement from the doctor an enthusiasm can be aroused, 
and the more advanced among the patients will help in 
instructing the others. " How shall they believe in Him of 
whom they have not heard ? " On Tuesday evenings we 
hold a class, in which we try to gather up the work of the 
week, " drawing up the gospel net," as it has well been 
termed ; and on Friday evenings there is a special meeting 
for the helpers and other Christians for prayer and the 
study of the Scriptures, the medical missionary being the 
leader at these various classes. 

I want to set forth a few reasons why the medical man 
should himself engage in evangelistic work. 



THE EVANGELISTIC SIDE OF A MEDICAL MISSION. 399 

First. — He can best influence his own patients. 

They are looking to him for relief from suffering, 
and if he is doing his best to succour them, and they 
see that he is equally interested in their spiritual state, 
they will, out of sheer desire to please, begin to pay 
attention to these matters. This may seem a low 
motive, but never mind what is the motive if only the 
interest. Many a man is aroused has gone to a revival 
meeting to scoff and has remained to pray. 

Second. — His assistants will be, under God, largely what 

he makes them. 

It is a common statement at home that a Church is 
what its pastor is. Has he the missionary spirit? 
Then the Church will be a Missionary Church. Is 
he an aggressive man? Then the Church will be a 
Working Church. It is a trite saying, and yet one we 
often seem to forget, that men are taught by practice 
rather than by precept. It is of little use for the 
doctor to urge his assistants to Christian work while 
he himself is showing but lukewarm interest, or none 
at all. He must teach "do as I do" rather than "do 
as I say." 

Third. — Unless he attends to it, the full value of the 
Medical Mission as a Christianizing Agency will not 
be developed. 

It is no disparagement to our clerical colleagues to 
say this, for their main energies must necessarily be 
devoted to church organization and public teaching. 

Fourth. — His own spiritual life requires it. 

If the life of the soul is to be anything more than a 
name; if it is to remain in a healthy condition, it 
must needs find a channel for its activity. " We 
cannot but speak the things which we have seen and 
heard." 



40O APPENDIX. 



Then, too, there are so many depressing influences 
surrounding him in his medical work. The daily drudgery 
of the out-patient clinic, with its crowd of sick folk, 
becomes at times trying to the flesh. A medical visitor 
once said to me, " How can you spend your life amongst 
these dirty wretches ? " And in the wards, though to the 
lover of his profession there is much to attract in the study 
of cases of special interest, yet there is also much to weary. 
He has to work with imperfect instruments in the shape 
of clumsy if willing men, in place of the intelligent and 
tender nurses of our home hospitals. He has to put up 
with ideas of cleanliness that do not always accord with his 
own. All these things tend to depress a man. We need 
the elevating influence of service for God to counterbalance 
this state. When we aim at winning the souls of our 
patients to Christ, we begin to find how dreadfully dead to 
spiritual things the Chinese are, and how true it is that 
we can do nothing without the Holy Spirit, whose it is to 
convince of sin ; and this knowledge drives us to prayer, 
that He, who is the Quickener of the dead, may come into 
our lives and work, and then we shall have the joy of 
seeing the light break in upon the souls of our patients, 
and we ourselves will be raised above the drudgery of our 
daily toil, and our work will become ennobling to our 
higher nature. 



Tien-tsin March 4th, 1887. 



IV. 
THE DOUBLE CURE. 



The medical missionary has this great advantage over 
his clerical brother, that the people seek him, he has not to 
trouble about seeking them ; and yet they come only for 



THE DOUBLE CURE. 401 

the material benefits he can confer upon them in the 
healing of the diseases of the body. 

It was the same in our Lord's day ; the great majority of 
those who sought to see Jesus came only for bodily healing ; 
very few indeed sought Him, in the first place, for spiritual 
aid. And so we find Him, while daily surrounded by a 
multitude of people, exclaiming, " Ye will not come to Me 
that ye might have life." Our Lord was one day on the 
way to the house of Jairus, with a thronging crowd surging 
about Him, when into the midst crept a frail woman, who 
had suffered for twelve years from a painful disorder. 
Timidly she pushed her way through the crowd to get near 
Jesus, and then stretching forth her hand she touched His 
garment. There was much pushing and squeezing around 
Him, but He felt only one touch, and that was the hand of 
the poor helpless woman in her extremity. This touch of 
faith delighted and cheered the Saviour's heart. 

Let us not be satisfied with mere crowds flocking to us 
for medical treatment. We have a higher vocation to fulfil. 
Let us wait expectingly for this touch of faith, and with the 
Master may this alone satisfy our hearts. 

Our waiting-room may be full of patients, and all our 
beds be occupied, and yet these men and women will pass 
from under our care, pretty much as they came to us, so 
far as higher things are concerned, unless we directly bestir 
ourselves for their spiritual good. They seek us, it is true, 
but for their bodies only ; if we would win their souls, we 
must seek them. The command to us, as to all disciples, is 
"Go ye" — "Compel them to come in." Deliver us from 
thinking that we are obeying this command when we employ 
an evangelist and say to him, " You go and preach to the 
patients, while I attend to their bodies." This is not being 
a medical missionary. 

Let us look at our great ideal medical missionary — the 
Lord Jesus Christ. What were His methods ? When 
Nicodemus, the man of position, of unblemished moral 

26 



402 APPENDIX. 



character in the eyes of the world, sought the Lord for 
some friendly conversation one evening, Jesus takes up the 
theme, "Ye must be born again." When the respectable 
man, the official perhaps, visits us to return thanks for 
medical help, or to see some of the wonders from Western 
lands which we may have to show him, the Lord help us 
to be faithful to our commission. We may by so doing 
offend him, — and no doubt Nicodemus was offended at first 
by the direct personal dealing of our Lord. Yet what of 
that ? it is ours to obey, it is His to provide. We have 
in mind a rich patient, an official, who, when spoken to 
concerning Jesus, uttered some very bitter things against 
our Saviour's name, and was even inclined to argue against 
Christianity, but who later on sent five hundred taels for 
our hospital ; and when, a year after, he called, bringing 
with him a friend to see the wards, he challenged his friend 
that if he, the friend, would give five hundred taels, he 
himself would repeat his former donation. The challenge 
was accepted, and a thousand taels was added to our fund 
that day. Again he brought another friend to see the 
hospital, and persuaded him to give a donation of three 
hundred taels. Having been under treatment some two or 
three years later, he sent a third donation of five hundred 
taels: Thus the Lord, through the agency of this former 
opponent of Christianity, provided us with two thousand 
three hundred taels. Depend upon it, we never injure our 
cause by our faithfulness ; it is just the other way. 

So, too, when they brought to Him the palsied man lying 
on his bed, it is of his spiritual state Jesus thinks first, and 
thus He says, u Thy sins are forgiven thee." 

Should we not seek to imitate the Lord's method, 
even though the result be but a very feeble copy of the 
great original ? What is it that we have to impart ? Let 
us be definite with ourselves. Is it some new dogma? a 
system of doctrine from the West? If so, by all means 
leave the religious element in the hands of the evangelist ; 



THE DOUBLE CURE. 403 



he will expound your doctrines better than you can. But 
-we reject such an idea. The Chinese have already more 
than enough of mere empty doctrine. What we bring 
them is no lifeless form, but a living personal Saviour 
whom it is our privilege to present to the Chinese; and 
this glorious privilege of representing our Saviour King, 
and witnessing for HIM, we dare not commit to any second 
party. 

When we go our rounds in the wards we examine into 
the cases before us, and prescribe the remedies according 
to the best of our ability. We omit nothing within our 
reach which can help our patients. We are lavish with 
costly restoratives if they are necessary to the saving of the 
man's life. But herein are we different from hundreds of 
medical men in other parts of the world who owe no 
allegiance to Jesus, and yet who spare neither strength, 
time, nor money in the enthusiasm of hospital work. The 
difference should lie in the fact that we are as thorough, as 
definite in seeking the cure of the soul's malady, as they 
and we alike are in succouring the bodies of men. 

Our remedies frequently fail, but Christ, as the remedy 
for sin, never fails. It is true it often seems to fail, but the 
reason is that the remedy is not properly applied. It is 
our great lamentation that the Chinese are so negligent in 
regularly following up treatment. A man takes one or two 
doses of medicine, and because he is not distinctly better as 
a consequence, he declares the foreign doctor cannot cure 
him, and ceases to attend. Have our medicines failed in 
this case ? Certainly not. And so, though sometimes 
discouraged, we yet persevere, having faith that we can 
accomplish good, and that our work must tell in time. 
Now let us act in the same way with this spiritual 
malady sin. 

The first essential is that the patient recognises the fact 
that he is sick, else he certainly will not take the medicine. 
We must press home this truth with all our might. Then, 



4Q4 APPENDIX. 



too, we need to pray more for and with our patients, and to 
labour on with thankful and restful hearts, knowing that as 
surely as the rain comes down from heaven to moisten and 
fertilize the earth, so certainly will the Holy Spirit be 
poured out upon our patients, causing the Word to take 
root in their hearts and to bring forth fruit in their lives. 

But some will say, It is impossible to find time for this 
double work. We beg leave to differ from them. The 
medical missionary who is at the head of a large hospital 
should be like a master-workman, overseeing everything, 
setting each his task, while reserving to himself the delicate 
and important workmanship. We would have him do less 
work perhaps, but work of a higher quality. Do not let 
him spend his strength in seeing vast crowds of out- 
patients, when the statistics of many hospitals combine to 
show that scarcely more than two visits are paid by each 
individual, and therefore from a medical standpoint alone 
the results are most unsatisfactory. This department must 
be kept up, but let him leave it largely in the hands of 
trained assistants, he himself doing well that which is best 
worth the doing. 



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"This book contains an exhaustive account of the benefits that may, and in 

point of fact do, accrue from the use of the medical art as a Christian agency. Mr. 

Lowe is eminently qualified to instruct us in this matter, having himself been so 

long engaged in the same field." — From Introduction by Sir William Muir. 

ONCE HINDU: NOW CHRISTIAN. The early life of Baba 
Padmanji. Translated from the Marathi. Edited by J. Murray Mit- 
chell, M. A , LLD. 12mo., 155 pa«;es, with appendix. Cloth, 75c. 

"A more instructive or more interesting narrative of a human soul, once held 
firmly in the grip of oriental superstition, idolatry and caste, gradually emerging 
into the light, liberty and peace of a regenerate child of God, does not often come 
to hand." — Jlissionary Herald. 

AN INTENSE LIFE. By George F. Herrick. A sketch of the life 
and work of Rev. Andrew T. Prattt, M.D., Missionary of the A. B. 
C. F. M., in Turkey, 1852-1872. 16mo., cloth, 50c. 



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Important Missionary Publications 

(Continued. ) 



EVERY-DAY LIFE IN SOUTH INDIA, or, the Story of Coopoo- 
swamey. An Autobiography. With fine engravings by E. Whym- 
per. 12mo., cloth, $1.00. 

THE CHILDREN OF INDIA. Written for children by one of 
their friends. Illustrations and map. Small 4to , cloth, $1,25. 
"These are good books for the Sunday-School Library, and will help young- 
people in missionary societies who desire to have an intelligent idea of the people 
in India whom they are sending their money and their missionaries to convert." — 
Missionary Herald. 

HINDUISM, PAST AND PRESENT. With an account of recent 
Hindu reformers, and a brief comparison between Hinduism and 
Christianity. By J. Murray Mitchell, M.A., LLD. 12mo., cloth, 
$1.60. 

" A praiseworthy attempt to present a popular view of a vast and important 
-ubject." — Saturday Review. 

GOSPEL ETHNOLOGY. With illustrations. .By S. R. Paterson, 
F. G. S. 12mo, cloth., $1.00. 

" The first attempt to treat this subject .from a thorough-going scientific stand- 
point. A very powerful argument for the truth of Christianity. " — English Church- 
man. 

" A book to refer to for information not easily to be obtained otherwise. — 
Church Missionary Intelligencer. 

NATIVE LIFE IN SOUTH INDIA. Being sketches of the social 
and religious characteristics of the Hindus. By the Rev. Henry 
Rice. With many illustrations from native sketches. 12mo., cloth 
boards, $1.00. 

" Those who have heard Mr. Rice's missionary addresses will be prepared to 
hear that this is a fascinating book."— Life and Work. 

CHRISTIAN PROGRESS IN CHINA. Gleanings from the writ- 
ings and speaches of many workers. By Arnold Foster, B.A., 
London Missionary, Hankow. With map of China. 12mo., cloth, 
$1.00. 

AMONG THE MONGOLS. By Rev. James Gilmour, M.A., London 
Mission, Peking. Numerous engravings from photographs and 
native sketches. 12mo., gilt edges, cloth, $1.00. 
"The newness and value of the book consists solely in its Defoe quality, that 

when you have read it you know, and will never forget, all Mr. Gilmour knows 

and tells of how Mongols live." — Spectator. 

EVERY-DAY LIFE IN CHINA, or, Scenes along River and Road 
in the Celestial Empire. By Edwin J. Dukes. Illustrations from 
the author's sketches. 12mo., with embellished cover, $2.00. 
That China is a mysterious problem to all who interest themselves in its affairs 

is the only excuse for offering another book on the subject. 



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Popular Missionary Biographies. 

i2mo, 160 pages. Fully illustrated; cloth extra, 75 cents each. 



Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, 
writes : 

" Crowded with facts 
that both interest and in- 
spire, we can conceive of 
no better plan to spread 
the Missionary spirit than 
the multiplying of such 
biographies; and we 
would specially commend 
this series to those who 
have the management of 
libraries and selection of 
prizes in our Sunday 
Schools." 




From The Missionary 
Herald : 

"We commended this 
series in our last issue, 
and a further examina^ 
tion leads us to renew our 
commendation, and to 
urge the placing of this 
series of missionary books 
in ail our Sabbath-school 
libraries. 

These books are hand- 
somely printed and bound 
and are beautifully illus- 
trated, and we are confi- 
dent that they will prove 
attractive to all young 
people." 



SAMUEL CROWTHER, the Slave Boy who became Bishop of 

the Niger. By Jesse Page, author of " Bishop Patterson." 
THOMAS J. COMBER, Missionary Pioneer to the Congo. By 

Rev. J. B. Myers, Association Secretary Baptist Missionary Society. 
BISHOP PATTESON, the Martyr of Melanesia. By Jesse Page. 
GRIFFITH JOHN, Founder of the Hankow Mission, Central 

China. By Wm. Robson, of the London Missionary Society. 
ROBERT MORRISON, the Pioneer of Chinese Missions. By 

Wm. J. Townsend, Sec. Methodist New Connexion Missionary Soc'y. 
ROBERT MOFFAT, the Missionary Hero of Kuruman. By David 

J. Deane, author of " Martin Luther, the Reformer," etc. 
WILLIAM CAREY, the Shoemaker who became a Missionary. 

By Rev. J. B. Myers, Association Secretary Baptist Missionary Society. 
JAMES CHALMERS, Missionary and Explorer of Rarotonga 

and New Guinea. Bv Wm. Robson, of the London Missionary Soc'y. 
MISSIONARY LADIES IN FOREIGN LANDS. By Mrs. E. R. 

Pilman, author of " Heroines of the Mission Fields," etc. 
JAMES CALVERT; or, From Dark to Dawn in Fiji. 
JOHN WILLIAMS, the Martyr of Erromanga. By Rev. James 

J. Ellis. 
HENRY MARTYN, his Life and Labors. Cambridge-India- Persia. 



By Jesse Page. 



UNIFORM WITH THE ABOVE. 



HENRY M. STANLEY, the African Explorer 

fiore, F.R.G.S. Brought down to 1889. 
DAVID LIVINGSTON, His Labors and His Legacy 

MONTEFIORE, F.R.G S. 

JOHN WICLIFFE and MARTIN LUTHER. By D. J. Deane. 



By Arthur Monte 
By Arthur 



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By-Paths of Bible Knowledge. 

"The volumes issuing under the above general title fully deserve suc- 
cess. They have been entrusted to scholars who have a special acquaint- 
ance with the subjects about which they severally treat." — Athenceum. 



Theae books are written by specialists, and their aim is to give the 
results of the latest and best scholarships on questions of Biblical 
history, science and archaeology. The volumes contain much informa- 
tion that is not easily accessible, even to those who have a large 
acquaintance with the higher literature on these subjects. 



15. Early Bible Songs. 

With introduction on the Nature and Spirit of Hebrew Song, by 

A. H. Drysdale M. A $100 

14. Modern Discoveries on the Site of Ancient Ephesus. 

ByJ.T. Wood, F. S. A. Illustrated $100 

13. The Times of Isaiah. 

As illustrated from Contemporary Monuments. By A. H. Sayce, LL. D. .80 
12. The Hittites; or the Story of a Forgotten Empire. 

By A. H. Sayce, LL. D. Illustrated. Crown, 8vo $1 20 

11. Animals of the Bible. 

By H. Chichester Hart, Naturalist to Sir G. Nares' Arctic Expedition 
and Professor Hull's Palestine Expedition. Illustrated, Crown, 8vo $1 20 
10. The Trees and Plants Mentioned in the Bible. 

By W. H. Groser, B. Sc. Illustrated $100 

9. The Diseases of the Bible. 

By Sir J. Risdon Bennett $100 

8. The Dwellers on the Nile. 

Chapters on the Life, Literature, History and Customs of Ancient 
Egypt. By E. A. Wallis Budge, M. A ., Assistant in Department of 

Oriental Antiquities, British Museum. Illustrated $1 \ S 

7. Assyria; Its Princes, Priests and People. 

By A. H. Sayce, M. A., LL. D., author of "Fresh Light from Ancient 
Monuments," "Introduction to Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther," etc. 

Illustrated $120 

6. Egypt and Syria. 

Their Physical Features in Relation to Bible History. By Sir J. W. 
Dawson, Principal of McGill College, Montreal, F. G. S., F. R. S., 
author of "The Chain of Life in Geological Time," etc. Second 

edition, revised and enlarged. With many illustrations $1 20 

5. Galilee in the time of Christ. 

By Selah Merrill, D. D., author of "East of the Jordan," etc. With Map $1 00 

4. Babylonian Life and History. 

By E. A. Willis Budge, M. A., Cambridge, Assistant in the Depart- 
ment of Oriental Antiquities, British Museum, illustrated $120 

3. Recent Discoveries on the Temple Mill at Jerusalem. 

By the Rev. J. King, M. A., Authorized Lecturer for the Palestine 
Exploration Fund. With Maps, Plans and Illustrations $1 06 

5. Fresh Lights From the Ancient Monuments. 

A Sketch of the most striking Confirmations of the Bible from recent 
discoveries in Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Palestine and Asia Minor. 
By A. H. Sayce, LL. D., Deputy Professor of Comparative Philology, 

Oxford, etc. With fac-similes from photographs $1 20 

1. Cleopatra's Needle. 

History of the London Obelisk, with an Exposition of the Hiero- 
glyphics. By the Rev. J. King, Lecturer for the Palestine Explora- 
tion Fund. With Illustrations.. $100 



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A LIBRARY OF CRITICAL, LEARNING. 



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PRESENT DAY TRACTS. 

A SERIES OFTEN VOLUMES COVERING A WIDE RANGE OF SUBJECTS Cj*. 
CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE, DOCTRINE AND MORALS. 

We wish to place this set of books in the library of every thoughtful 
minister. 

The set cannot but be desired as soon as their worth is known. 
The subjects treated are the leading topics of the day, and the writers 
are acknowledged authorities on the particular themes discussed. 

Note the remarkable list of names included a?)wng the contributors. 



Pbincipal Caibns, 

Rev. C. A. Row, 

W. G. Blackie, D.D., LL.D., 

Pbebendaby Row, M.A., 

Ret. Noah Poetee, D.D., 

Canon Rawlinson, 

8. R. Pattison, F.G.8., 

Db. Fbiedbich Pfaff, 

Dean of Canteebuey, 

Henby Wace, D.D., 

Rev. W. F. Wilkinson, M.A., 

James Legge, LL.D., 

Rev. W. G. Elmslie, M.A., 

Dean of Chestee, 

J. Muebay Mitchell, LL.D., 



Rev. James Ivebach, M.A., 

A. H. Savce, M.A., 

Rev. J. Radfobd Thomson, M.A., 

Rev. William Abthtjb, 

Sib W. Mtjie, 

Rev. A. B. Bbtjce, D.D., 

Alexandee Macalisteb, M.A., M.i. ,* 

Rev. G. F. Macleae, D.D., 

Rev. J. Stoughton, D.D., 

Rev. R. McCheyne Edgab, M.A.. 

Rev. John Caibns, D.D., 

Sib J. William Dawson, F.R.S., 

Rev. W. S. Lewis, M.A., 

Rev. John Kelly, 

Rev. M. Kaufmann, M.A., 

Canon Giedlestone, 

And others. 



F. Godet, D.D. 

Eustace P. Condee, M.A., D.D., 

Can you in any other shape add to your library so much valuanln 
material with so small an expenditure? 

These have until lately been sold at $1.25 per vol., $12.50 per set 
The price has now been reduced to $10.00 per set, and we make the 
following 

Special Offer, viz. : We will send this remarkable set of books to 
any minister for the special net price of $7.50 Per Set. 



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New Books for «-< 

■— Thinking Minds. 

■»» ♦ •+> 

WHAT ARE WE TO BELIEVE ? or, The Testimony of Ful- 
filled Prophecy. By Rev. John Urquhart. i6mo., 230 pages, 
cloth, 75 cents, net. 

_ " This book, so small in bulk but so large in thought, sets forth a great mass of such tes- 
timony in lines so clear and powerful that we pity the man who could read it without 
amazement and awe. It is the very book to put into the hands of an intelligent Agnostic." 
— The Christian, London. 

MANY INFALLIBLE PROOFS. By Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, 
D. D. 317 pp. i2mo. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 35 cents, net. 

" It is not an exercise in mental gymnastics, but an earnest inquiry after the truth."— 
Daily Telegram, Troy, N. Y. 

" He does not believe that the primary end of the Bible is to teach science ; but he 
argues with force and full conviction that nothing in the Bible has been shaken by scientific 
research."— Independent. 

HOW I REACHED THE MASSES; Together with twenty-two 
lectures delivered in the Birmingham Town Hall on Sunday after- 
noons. By Rev. Charles Leach, F. G. S. i6mo., cloth, $1.00. 

There is much of very welcome good sense and practical illustration in these addresses. 
Pithy and pointed in admonishment, and wholesome in their didactic tone, they ought to 
exercise a good influence. 

ENDLESS BEING; or, Man Made for Eternity. By Rev. J. L. 

Barlow. Introduction by the Rev. P. S. Henson, D. D. Cloth, 

i6mo., 165 pages, 75 cents. 
An unanswerable work ; meeting the so-called annihilation and kindred theories most 
satisfactorily. The author held for years these errors, and writes as one fully conversant 
with the ground he covers. It is a work which should be widely circulated, 

PAPERS ON PREACHING. By the Right Rev. Bishop Baldwin, 
Rev. Principal Rainy, D. D., Rev. J. R. Vernon, M. A., and others. 
Crown, 8vo, cloth, 75 cents. 
" Preachers of all denominatioas wili do well to read these practical and instructive 

disquisitions. The essay on " Expression in Preaching " is especially good. — Christian. 

THE SABBATH; its Permanence, Promise, and Defence. 
By Rev. W. W. Everts, D. D. i2mo., 278 pages, cloth, $1.00. 

No phase of the Sabbath question is left undiscussed, while every topic is treated in the 
briefest manner, and every touch of light shows the hand of a master. 

"An incisive and effective discussion of the subject."— N. Y. Observer. 

" A thoughtful Christian defence of that divine institution." — Christian Advocate. 

QUESTIONS OF THE AGES. By Rev. Moses Smith. 
Cloth i2mo ; 132 pages, 75 cents. 

Is there Common Sense in Religion ? 
What is Faith ? 
Is there a Larger Hope ? 
Is Life Worth Living? 
What Mean these Stones? 
" Discusses certain of the deep things of the Gospel in such a wise and suggestive 
fashion that they are helpful. One, answers negatively and conclusively the question, Lb 
there a larger hope ? ^—The Congregationalist. 



What is the Almighty? 

What is man ? 

What is the Trinity? 

Which ts the Great Commandment . 



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REFERENCE BOOKS 



FOR 



BIBLE STUDENTS. 



JAMIESON, FAUSSET & BROWN'S Popular Portable Com- 
mentary. Critical, Practical, Explanatory. Four volumns in neat 
box, fine cloth, $8.00; half bound, $10.00. 
A new edition, containing the complete unabridged notes in clear type on good paper, 

in four handsome 12 mo. volumes of about 1.000 pages each, with copious index, numerous 

illustrations and maps, and a Bible Dictionary compiled from Dr. Wm. Smith's standard 

work. 

Bishop Vincent of Chautauqua fame says : *' The best cocdensed commentary on the 

whole Bible is Jamieson, Fausset &. Brown." 

CRU DEN'S UNABRIDGED CONCORDANCE TO THE 
HOLY SCRIPTURES. With life of the author. 864 pp., 8vo., 
cloth (net), $1.00; half roan, sprinkled edges (net), 2.00; half roan, 
full gilt edges (net), $2.50. 

SMITH'S BIBLE DICTIONARY, comprising its Antiquities, Biog- 
raphy, Geography and Natural History, with numerous maps and illus- 
trations. Edited and condensed from his great work by William 
Smith, LL. D. 776 pages, 8vo, many illustrations, cloth, $1.50. 

THE BIBLE TEXT CYCLOPEDIA. A complete classification of 
Scripture Texts in the form of an alphabetical list of subjects. By 
Rev. James Inglis. Large 8vo, 524 pages, cloth, $1.75. 

The plan is much the same as the " Bible Text Book" with the valuable additional 
help in that the texts referred to are quoted in full. Thus the student is saved the. time and 
labor of turning to numerous passages, which, when found, may not be pertinent to the 
subject he has in hand. 

THE TREASURY OF SCRIPTURE KNOWLEDGE; consist- 
ing of 500,000 scripture references and parallel passages, with numer- 
ous notes. 8vo, 778 pages, cloth, $2.00. 

A single examination of this remarkable compilation of references will convince the 
reader of the fact that " the Bible is its own best interpreter." 

THE WORKS OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, translated by William 
Whiston, A. M., with Life, Portrait, Notes and Index. A new cheap 
edition in clear type. Large 8vo, 684 pages, cloth, $2.00. 

100.000 SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS. By Rt. Rev. Samuel 
Fallows, A. M., D. D. 512 pages, cloth, $1.00. 

A complete Dictionary of synonyms and words of opposite meanings, with an appen- 
dix of Briticisms, Americanisms, Colloquialisms, Homonims, Homophonous words, Foreign 
Phrases, etc., etc. 

" This is one of the best books of its kind we have seen, and probably there is nothing 
published in the country that is equal to it." — Y. M. C. A. Watchman. 



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miGGMSTTSm BOOKS - - 

- - for BIBLE RBA.JDBRS. 



NEW NOTES FOR BIBLE READINGS. By the late S. R. Briggs, 
with brief Memoir of the author by Rev. Jas. H. Brookes, D. D., 
Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.00 ; flexible, 75 cents, net. 

" New Notes" is not a reprint, and contains Bible Readings to be found in no other 
similar work, and, it is confidently believed, will be found more carefully prepared, and 
therefore more helpful and suggestive. 

Everyone of the 60,000 readers of " Notes and Suggestions for Bible Readings " will 
welcome this entirely new collection containing selections from D. L. Moody, Major Whittle, 
J. H. Brookes, D. D., Prof. W. G. Moorehead, Rev. E. P. Marvin, Jno. Currie, Rev. W. J. 
Erdman, Rev. F. E. Marsh. Dr. L. W. Munhall, etc. 

NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR BIBLE READINGS. By 

S. R. Briggs and J. H. Elliott. 

Containing, in addition to twelve introductory chapters on plans and method of Bible 
study and Bible readings, over six hundred outlines of Bible readings, by many of the 
most eminent Bible students of the day. Crown 8vo, 262 pp. Cloth, library style, $1.00; 
flexible cloth, .75 ; paper covers, .50. 

THE OPEN SECRET; or, The Bible Explaining Itself. A series 

of intensely practical Bible readings. By Hannah Whitall Smith. 
320 pp. Fine cloth, $1.00. 
That the author of this work has a faculty of presenting the " Secret Things " that are 
revealed in the Word of God is apparent to all who have read the exceedingly popular work, 
"The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life." 

BIBLE BRIEFS ; or, Outline Themes for Scripture Students. By 

G. C. & E. A. Needham. i6mo., 224 pages, cloth, $1.00. 

The plan of these expositions is suggestive rather than exhaustive, and these suggestions 
are designed to aid Evangelists at home and missionaries abroad, Bible School Teachers, and 
Christian Association Secretaries and Workers. 

BIBLE HELPS FOR BUSY MEN. By A. C. P. Coote. 

Contains over 200 Scripture subjects, clearly worked out and printed in good legible 
type, with an alphabetical index. 140 pages, 16mo.; paper, 40c; cloth flex., 60c 
" Likely to be of use to overworked brethren." — C. H. Spurgeon. 
41 Given in a clear and remarkably telling form." — Christian Leader. 

RUTH, THE MOABITESS; or Gleaning in the Book of Ruth. 

By Henry Moorhouse. i6mo., paper covers, 20c; cloth, 40c. 
A characteristic series of Bible readings, full of suggestion and instruction. 

BIBLE READINGS. By Henry Moorhouse. i6mo., paper covers, 
30 cents ; cloth, 60 cents. 
A series by one pre-eminently the man of one book, an incessant, intense, prayerful 
student of the Bible. 

SYMBOLS AND SYSTEMS IN BIBLE READINGS. 

Rev. W. F. Crafts. 64 pages and cover, 25 cents. 
Giving a plan of Bible reading, with fifty verses definitely assigned for each day, tha 
Bible being arranged in the order of its event? , The entire symbolism of the Bible ex- 
plained concisely and clearly. 



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o<HAND BOOKS FOR BIBLE STUDENTSt» 

♦» ■» «♦ 

THE LIFE OF CHRIST. Rev. Jas. Stalker, M. A. A new 
edition, with introduction by Rev. Geo. C. Lorimer, D. D. i2mo. 
cloth, 166 pages, 60 cents. 

This work is in truth "Multum in Parvo" containing within small compass a vast 
amount of most helpful teaching, so admirably arranged that the reader gathers with re- 
markable definiteness the whole revealed record of the life work of our Lord in a nutshell 
of space and with a minimum of study. 

THE LIFE OF ST. PAUL. By Rev. Jas. Stalker, M. A. i2mo. 
cloth, 184 pages, 60 cents. 

As admirable a work as the exceedingly popular volume by this author on " The Life 
of Christ." 

"An exceedingly compact life of the Apostle to the Gentiles. It is bristling with 
information, and is brief, yet clear. As an outline of Paul's life it cannot be surpassed."' — ■ 
N. Y. Christian Inquirer. 

THE BIBLE STUDENTS' HANDBOOK. i2mo cloth, 288 pages, 
50 cents. 

One of those helpful works, worth its price, multiplied by several scores. It con- 
tains an introduction to the study of the Scriptures, with a brief account of the books of 
the Bible, their writers, etc., also a synopsis of the life and work of our Lord, and complete 
history of the manners and customs of the times, etc. 

THE TOPICAL TEXT BOOK. i6mo. cloth, 292 pages, 60 cents. 

A remarkably complete and helpful Scripture text book for the topical study of the 
Bible. Useful in preparing Bible readings, addresses, etc. 

THE BIBLE REMEMBRANCER. 24mo. cloth, 198 pages, 50 cts. 

A complete analyses of the Bible is here given, in small compass, in addition to a 
large amount of valuable Bibhcal information, and twelve colored maps. 

BIBLE LESSONS ON JOSHUA AND JUDGES. By Rev. J. 
Gurney Hoare, M. A. i6mo cloth, 124 pages, 50 cents. 

FIFTY-TWO LESSONS ON (1) The Works of Our Lord ; (2) Claims 
of Our Lord. Forming a year's course of instruction for Bible classes, 
Sunday schools and lectures. By Flavel S. Cook, M. A., D. D. 
i6mo. cloth, 104 pages, 50 cents. 

FIFTY-TWO LESSONS ON (1) The Names and Titles of Our 
Lord ; (2) Prophesies Concerning Our Lord and their Fulfillment. 
By Flavel S. Cook, M. A., D. D. i6mo. cloth, 104 pages, 50 cents. 

Extremely full in the matter of reference and explanation, and likely to make the 
user "search the Scriptures." 

OUTLINE OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. By Rev. J. H. 
Brookes, D. D. Invaluable to the young student of the Bible as a 
" First Lesson " in the study of the Book. 180 pages. Cloth, 50 cents, 
paper covers, 25 cents. 

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. By Rev. Adolph Sapher. 

i6mo. cloth, 160 pages, 75 cents. 

To all disciples of Christ this work commends itself at once by its grasp of truth, 
its insight, the life in it, and its spiritual force. — Christian Work. 



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Works of D. L. Moody. 

By the strenuous cultivation of his gift Mr. Moody has attained to a clear and in 
cisive style which preachers ought to study; and he has the merit, which many more cul 
rivated men lack, of saying nothing that does not tend to the enforcement of the particu- 
lar truth he is enunciating. He knows how to disencumber his text of all extraneous 
matter, and exhibits his wisdom as a preacher hardly less by what he leaves out than by 
what he includes. Apart from its primary purpose each of these books has a distinct 
value as a lesson on homiletics to ministers and students. — The Christian Leader. 

Bible Characters. 

Prevailing Prayer; What Hinders It. Thirtieth Thousand 

To the Work ! To the Work ! A Trumpet Call. Thir- 
tieth Thousand. 

The Way to God and How to Find It, One Hundred 

and Fifth Thousand. 
Heaven; its Hope; its Inhabitants; its Happiness; its Riches; 

its Reward. One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Thousand. 
Secret Power ; or the Secret of Success in Christian Life 

and Work. Seventy-Second Thousand. 
Twelve Select Sermons. One Hundred and Sixty-Fifth 

Thousand. 
The above are bound in uniform style and price. Paper covers 30 cents: cloth, 
60 cents. Also issued in cloth, beveled edge, and put up in neat box containing the 
seven volumes. Price of set, $4 20. 



Daniel, the Prophet. Tenth Thousand. Paper cover, 20c. 

cloth, 40c. 
The Full Assurance of Faith. Seventh Thousand. Some 

thoughts on Christian confidence. Paper cover, 15c; cloth, 25c. 

The Way and the Word. Sixty-Fifth Thousand. Com- 
prising "Regeneration," and "How to Study the Bible." Cloth, 25c; 
paper, 15 c. 

HOW to Study the Bible. Forty-Fifth Thousand. Cloth, 15c. 
paper, 10c. 

The Second Coming Of Christ. Forty-Fifth Thousand, 
Paper, 10c. 

Inquiry Meetings. By Mr. Moody and Maj. Whittle. 
Paper, 15 c. 

Gospel Booklets. By D. L. Moody. 12 separate sermons. 

Published in small square form, suitable for distribution, or inclosing in 
letters. 35 cents per dozen, $2.50 per hundred. May be had assorted 01 
of any separate tract. 

Any of the above sent postpaid to any address on receipt of price. 
Special rates for distribution made known on application. 

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